Microsoft Visual Studio Alternatives for .NET Framework

There are many alternatives to Microsoft Visual Studio for .NET Framework if you are looking for a replacement. The best .NET Framework alternative is MonoDevelop, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Microsoft Visual Studio and three of them are available for .NET Framework so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting .NET Framework alternatives to Microsoft Visual Studio are SharpDevelop and Microsoft Small Basic.

More about Microsoft Visual Studio
Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard
Microsoft Visual Studio alternatives page was last updated

Alternatives list

  1. MonoDevelop icon

    MonoDevelop

     128 likes

    MonoDevelop enables developers to write desktop and web applications on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. It also makes it easy to port .NET applications created with Visual Studio to Linux and Mac OS X maintaining a single code base for all platforms.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • .NET Framework
    • Xamarin Studio
    MonoDevelop screenshot 1
     
    |
    7
    Discontinued

    As of October 2021, the GitHub repository README has been updated to say "This project has not been built nor maintained since January 2020 and has been archived".

    MonoDevelop vs Microsoft Visual Studio Comments
    Top Positive Comment
    Guest
    6

    I've used MonoDevelop extensively for C# work in Linux. It can work with Visual Studio projects, and much of the shortcut key mappings match Visual Studio. Support for WinForms is available, but there is no viable GUI layout tool/functionality available. A pity that there's no XAML/WPF support under Linux....

    Top Negative Comment
    Guest
    8

    Has to be built from source before it'll run on Windows.

    gnusensei
    Positive
    0

    MonoDevelop's GUI designer is admirable, I've tried it and impressed immediately with how easy and straightforward it to design a window by drag and drop. Try to compare it with Netbeans', Eclipse's or CodeBlocks' GUI designer you will know what I mean.

    3 of 7 comments
    • MonoDevelop is Free and Open SourceMicrosoft Visual Studio is Free Personal and Proprietary
  2. SharpDevelop icon

    SharpDevelop

     81 likes

    #develop (short for SharpDevelop) is a free IDE for C#, VB.NET and Boo projects on Microsoft's .NET platform. It is open-source, and you can download both sourcecode and executables.

    25 SharpDevelop alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • .NET Framework
    SharpDevelop on Vista
     
    |
    6
    Discontinued

    Unfortunately SharpDevelop has been discontinued. It is still a viable alternative for VS for versions until 2016, but it doesn't support C# 7.0 as VS 2017 does. See details: http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/WhatsNew.aspx

    SharpDevelop vs Microsoft Visual Studio Comments
    Top Positive Comment
    Guest
    6

    It's very similar to it and size is very low! { Visual Studio - up to 3 GB / sharp Develop - Only Up to 15 MB in size }

    Guest
    Positive
    0

    Only to a certain extent. Lacking many features and is no longer updated.

    lordunknown
    Positive
    4

    It's small, lightweight, specialized on .NET development (but C++ is available too), supports designing both WinForms and WPF and has NuGet support. Perfect IDE for lightweight C# developing (if you don't need to handle a team of 10000 employees working on 5 big projects)

    3 of 6 comments
    • SharpDevelop is Free and Open SourceMicrosoft Visual Studio is Free Personal and Proprietary
  4. Microsoft Small Basic icon

    Microsoft Small Basic

     12 likes

    Microsoft Small Basic puts the fun back into computer programming. With a friendly development environment that is very easy to master, it eases both kids and adults into the world of programming.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • .NET Framework
    Main Development Window
     
    |
    1
    Microsoft Small Basic vs Microsoft Visual Studio Comments
    Guest
    Negative
    -1

    Because Visual Studio is a really advanced IDE and Small Basic is as the name suggests, basic.

    • Microsoft Small Basic is Free and ProprietaryMicrosoft Visual Studio is Free Personal and Proprietary
3 of 3 Microsoft Visual Studio alternatives