Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Visual Studio Community VS SharpDevelop

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

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!

SharpDevelop logo SharpDevelop

#develop (short for SharpDevelop) is a free IDE for C#, VB.NET and Boo projects on Microsoft's .
  • Visual Studio Community Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-24
  • SharpDevelop Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-27

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.

SharpDevelop features and specs

  • Open Source
    SharpDevelop is open-source software, allowing developers to contribute to its development and customize it as needed.
  • Free of Charge
    It is available for free, which lowers the barrier for entry for individual developers and small teams who may not have the budget for commercial alternatives.
  • Lightweight
    SharpDevelop is lightweight compared to some other integrated development environments (IDEs), which can result in faster startup times and lower system resource consumption.
  • C# and .NET Support
    It provides good support for C# and .NET languages, catering to developers working within the Microsoft ecosystem.
  • Extensible
    The IDE is extensible, allowing developers to add features and customize it through a range of plugins and extensions.

Possible disadvantages of SharpDevelop

  • Limited Features
    Compared to larger IDEs like Visual Studio, SharpDevelop may have fewer features and tools available out of the box.
  • Discontinued Development
    Active development on SharpDevelop has been discontinued, meaning it may lack support for new technologies or bug fixes over time.
  • Community Size
    The user and developer community for SharpDevelop is relatively small, which can lead to limited support options and fewer third-party resources.
  • Compatibility
    SharpDevelop might not support all the latest features of C# and .NET, especially newer releases, due to its discontinued status.
  • Platform Limitations
    It's primarily designed for Windows, which may not be ideal for developers working in cross-platform environments.

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.

Visual Studio Community videos

Introducing Visual Studio Community 2015

SharpDevelop videos

Hello World App in C# with SharpDevelop IDE

More videos:

  • Review - SharpDevelop | Visual Studio Alternative For Weaker Devices | And Low Space Computers
  • Review - tuananhktmt- Hฦฐแป›ng dแบซn lแบญp trรฌnh C# trรชn SharpDevelop

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Visual Studio Community and SharpDevelop)
Text Editors
85 85%
15% 15
IDE
75 75%
25% 25
Open Source
100 100%
0% 0
Software Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Visual Studio Community seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 146 times since March 2021. 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.

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 / 7 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 / 10 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 / about 1 year ago
  • A list of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings that have free tiers of interest to devops and infradev
    Visual Studio Community โ€” 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 / almost 2 years ago
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SharpDevelop mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of SharpDevelop yet. Tracking of SharpDevelop recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

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

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

Microsoft Visual Studio - Microsoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft.

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.

MonoDevelop - MonoDevelop enables developers to write desktop and web applications on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

SSH of Windows' Linux subsystem - Installation instructions for the Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows 10.

Qt Creator - Qt Creator is a cross-platform C++, JavaScript and QML integrated development environment. It is the fastest, easiest and most fun experience a C++ developer could wish for.