Microsoft Visual Studio Alternatives for .NET Framework

Alternatives list

1. 

   

   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.

   29 MonoDevelop alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source

   Application typeApplication types

   • IDE
   • Code Editor

   Origin

   • United States

   Alerts

   • Discontinued

   Platforms

   • Mac
   • Windows
   • Linux
   • .NET Framework
   • Xamarin Studio

   • United States

   

   

   

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   More about MonoDevelop  

   

   Good alternative?Is MonoDevelop a good alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio?

    

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   7comments

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   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repository README has been updated to say "This project has not been built nor maintained since January 2020 and has been archived".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 by Guest · Oct 19, 2017

   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 by Guest · Jan 2, 2020

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

   Positive comment by gnusensei · Feb 5, 2022

   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

    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

   • IDE

   Origin

   • Switzerland

   Alerts

   • Discontinued

   Platforms

   • Windows
   • .NET Framework

   • Switzerland

   

   More about SharpDevelop  

   

   Good alternative?Is SharpDevelop a good alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio?

    

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   6comments

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   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 by Guest · Oct 19, 2016

   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 }

   Positive comment by Guest · Nov 9, 2018

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 Lacking many features and is no longer updated.

   Positive comment by lordunknown · Sep 12, 2017

   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

    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.

   66 Microsoft Small Basic alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Proprietary

   Origin

   • United States

   Platforms

   • Windows
   • .NET Framework

   • United States

   

   

   

   More about Microsoft Small Basic  

   

   Good alternative?Is this a good alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio?

    

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   1comment

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   Microsoft Small Basic vs Microsoft Visual Studio Comments

   Negative comment by Guest · Oct 5, 2021

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

   1 of 1 comments

   

   

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