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PyQt VS Visual Studio Community

Compare PyQt VS Visual Studio Community and see what are their differences

PyQt logo PyQt

Riverbank | Software | PyQt | What is PyQt?

Visual Studio Community logo Visual Studio Community

Try our free, fully-featured, and extensible IDE for creating modern developer apps for Windows, Android, & iOS. Download Community for free today!
  • PyQt Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-18
  • Visual Studio Community Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-24

PyQt features and specs

  • Comprehensive UI library
    PyQt provides a wide range of UI components, from basic widgets to advanced tools. This allows for the creation of highly sophisticated interfaces.
  • Cross-platform
    Applications built with PyQt can run on different operating systems such as Windows, macOS, and Linux without requiring significant changes in the code.
  • Integration with Qt Designer
    Developers can use Qt Designer to design and implement their UIs visually, which can then be seamlessly integrated with Python code in PyQt.
  • Powerful event handling
    PyQt includes a highly efficient event handling system that makes it easy to manage user interactions and system events.
  • Good documentation and community support
    PyQt is well-documented, and there's a large community of developers who can provide support and share resources.
  • Python-specific advantages
    Leveraging Python's simplicity and readability, PyQt allows for rapid development and easy maintenance of applications.

Possible disadvantages of PyQt

  • License considerations
    PyQt is available under the GPL and a commercial license. If you want to create proprietary software without open-sourcing your code, you need to purchase a commercial license.
  • Steep learning curve
    While PyQt is powerful, it can have a steep learning curve for newcomers, particularly those who are not familiar with Qt and its paradigms.
  • Performance overhead
    Being a binding for Qt, some operations may have extra overhead compared to native Qt applications written in C++.
  • Dependency on external libraries
    PyQt relies on the Qt library, which means that you have to manage and distribute these dependencies along with your application.
  • Large binary sizes
    Applications created with PyQt can result in relatively large binary sizes because of the included Qt binaries.
  • Fragmentation of tools
    There can be fragmentation concerns, as PyQt must stay in sync with Qt, and different versions of Qt may introduce changes that are not immediately reflected in PyQt.

Visual Studio Community features and specs

  • Free Access
    Visual Studio Community is available for free for students, open-source contributors, and small teams, making it accessible to a large group of users without financial burden.
  • Rich Feature Set
    It offers a comprehensive suite of development tools for various programming languages and technologies, which includes code editing, debugging, and testing tools.
  • Extensive Language Support
    Supports a wide range of programming languages such as C#, VB.NET, F#, C++, Python, JavaScript, and more, providing versatility for different projects.
  • Integrated GitHub Support
    Seamlessly integrates with GitHub, which facilitates version control and code collaboration directly from the IDE.
  • Strong Community Support
    Being part of the larger Visual Studio ecosystem, it benefits from a vast community of developers who provide support, resources, and extensions.

Possible disadvantages of Visual Studio Community

  • Limited to Smaller Teams
    The free version is restricted for use by small teams and non-enterprise organizations, which can limit usage for larger enterprises.
  • Performance Overhead
    Visual Studio Community can be resource-heavy, requiring substantial system resources, which might affect performance on less capable machines.
  • Complex Interface
    The interface can be overwhelming for new users due to its complexity and myriad of features, potentially leading to a steep learning curve.
  • Lacks Some Advanced Features
    While it offers many features, it lacks some of the more advanced capabilities and tools available in the enterprise versions of Visual Studio.
  • Limited Technical Support
    Users of the Community edition have limited access to official technical support compared to the paid versions, which could be a drawback for resolving critical issues.

Analysis of PyQt

Overall verdict

  • PyQt is considered a good choice for developers looking to create robust, high-performance desktop applications with Python. Its ability to leverage the powerful Qt framework makes it a reliable option for both beginners and experienced developers.

Why this product is good

  • PyQt is a set of Python bindings for the Qt libraries, allowing developers to create cross-platform applications with native look and feel. It provides comprehensive support for building GUI applications and includes an extensive range of modules and functions, making it suitable for both simple and complex projects. Additionally, it benefits from a large and active community, extensive documentation, and commercial support from Riverbank Computing.

Recommended for

  • Developers looking for cross-platform GUI toolkits
  • Projects that require a modern, native look and feel
  • Development teams requiring robust commercial support
  • Python developers interested in leveraging a well-documented and extensive framework

Analysis of Visual Studio Community

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Visual Studio Community is generally regarded as a good IDE, especially for developers looking for a robust, versatile, and feature-packed environment to build applications. Its wide adoption in the industry and consistent updates from Microsoft ensure it remains a strong choice for developers.

Why this product is good

  • Visual Studio Community is a feature-rich, fully integrated development environment (IDE) that provides a comprehensive set of tools for developers. It supports a wide range of programming languages and platforms, making it a versatile choice for many types of projects. Its intuitive interface, powerful debugging capabilities, and support for extensions contribute to an enhanced development experience. Being free for individual developers, open-source projects, academic use, and small professional teams makes it accessible and cost-effective.

Recommended for

    This IDE is recommended for individual developers, small teams, and students who are engaged in software development. It's especially suitable for those working on Windows applications or who need to work with a variety of Microsoft services. Open-source contributors, learners, and small startups with limited budgets will also find it particularly beneficial.

PyQt videos

Python Top 3 GUI Frameworks In 2019 (PyQt5, wxPython, TKinter)

More videos:

Visual Studio Community videos

Introducing Visual Studio Community 2015

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PyQt and Visual Studio Community)
Development Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Text Editors
0 0%
100% 100
Rapid Application Development
IDE
27 27%
73% 73

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare PyQt and Visual Studio Community

PyQt Reviews

25 Python Frameworks to Master
PyQt is one of the most popular sets of Python bindings for the Qt cross-platform application framework. This framework perfectly combines the simplicity of Python as a general-purpose language and the powerful Qt application framework built in C++.
Source: kinsta.com
Which Python GUI library should you use? Comparing the Python GUI libraries available in 2023
Before the Qt Company (under Nokia) released the officially supported PySide library in 2009, Riverbank Computing had released PyQt in 1998. The main difference between these two libraries is in licensing. The free-to-use version of PyQt is licensed under GNU General Public License (GPL) v3 but PySide is licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). This means...
10 Best Python Libraries for GUI
Developed by Riverbank Computing, PyQt5 is one of the most popular Python frameworks for GUI. The PyQt package is built around the Qt framework, which is a cross-platform framework used for creating various applications on different platforms.
Source: www.unite.ai
Top 10 Python GUI Frameworks for Developers
When it comes to creating GUIs, the PyQt5 arsenal offers the impressive QtGui and the QtDesigner module, which provide numerous visual elements that the developer can implement with a simple drag and drop. Of course, the option of creating these elements by code also exists, allowing you to create both small-scale as well as large-scale applications with ease. Python’s...

Visual Studio Community Reviews

We have no reviews of Visual Studio Community yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Visual Studio Community seems to be a lot more popular than PyQt. While we know about 146 links to Visual Studio Community, we've tracked only 4 mentions of PyQt. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

PyQt mentions (4)

  • Python vs. JavaScript: Is It a Fair Comparison?
    JavaScript is a clear winner in the category of mobile development. There are some niche frameworks to do mobile development with Python—like Kivy and PyQT—but pretty much nobody uses them. - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
  • what would be the best looking GUI framework to develop a desktop python application? (other than Tkinter)
    If none of those are to your liking, you can use PyQT (or Pyside) but the learning curve is much steeper. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Is there a "Windows Forms" GUI designer for Python?
    Also, there is the PyQt module which is a comprehensive set of Python bindings for the Qt GUI. It has Qt Designer. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Best way to install qutebrowser?
    As for PyQt, that's developed entirely independently from Qt (by Riverbank Computing). The major/minor versions usually line up with the respective Qt releases (since the Qt release introduces new APIs, so a new PyQt release is needed to expose those to Python). However, it's versioned independently, and a new patch release of PyQt might be needed before/without Qt releasing a new patch release. For more details,... Source: about 4 years ago

Visual Studio Community mentions (146)

  • An Animated Introduction to Programming in C++ [Full Course]
    There are practice problems in each section so that you can practice while learning from the content. These are in the 'Hands-On Practice' section in each section. Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) are tools that allow you to write your own programs. There are some great, free C++ IDEs out there like Visual Studio, Xcode, and CLion. The simplest way to get started is to use a web-based IDE. Replit works... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Getting Started with .NET and Docker Tutorial
    You also need Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition which you can get from visualstudio.microsoft.com. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Visual Studio vs. Visual Studio Code: An In-depth Comparison
    Visual Studio has multiple versions and are priced differently based on your development needs. Visual Studio Community Edition is the free version recommended by Microsoft for individual needs. Other versions with more advanced features are paid for through subscriptions. These versions include Visual Studio Professional and Enterprise Edition. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • A list of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings that have free tiers of interest to devops and infradev
    Visual Studio Community — Fully-featured IDE with thousands of extensions, cross-platform app development (Microsoft extensions available for download for iOS and Android), desktop, web and cloud development, multi-language support (C#, C++, JavaScript, Python, PHP and more). - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Writing and Running Swift Code without Xcode on Mac and Windows
    First, you'll need Visual Studio Community (at the time of writing this blogpost, Visual Studio 2022 is the most recent version). Get it via winget install --id=Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.Community -e , or directly via Visual Studio Community if you don't have winget installed. Winget (winget) is a package manager for Windows like chocolatey and scoop. They have been compared numerous times. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing PyQt and Visual Studio Community, you can also consider the following products

Qt - Powerful, flexible and easy to use, Qt will help you not only meet your tight deadline, but also reduce the maintainable code by an astonishing percentage.

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

PySimpleGUI - A simple to use GUI that can create custom GUIs

vscode.dev - Now when you go to https://vscode.dev, you'll be presented with a lightweight version of VS Code running fully in the browser.

Tkinter - Tkinter is a Python wrapper for Tcl/Tk that offers classes to create various graphical user interfaces.

Ionide - Visual Studio Code & Atom plugins for F# development