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wxWidgets VS Visual Studio Community

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

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wxWidgets logo wxWidgets

wxWidgets: Cross-Platform GUI Library

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!
  • wxWidgets Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-07-21
  • Visual Studio Community Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-24

wxWidgets features and specs

  • Cross-Platform
    wxWidgets allows developers to create applications that run on different platforms such as Windows, macOS, Linux, and more, without changing the codebase.
  • Native Look and Feel
    It provides a native look and feel on each platform by using the native GUI components, making applications appear more integrated with the host OS.
  • Wide Range of Widgets
    wxWidgets offers a rich set of widgets and controls, supporting complex interfaces and various types of user interactions.
  • Extensive Documentation
    The library is well-documented, with numerous tutorials, guides, and an active community to help developers troubleshoot and expand their understanding.
  • Open Source
    Being open source, wxWidgets provides the flexibility to customize and modify the library to better fit specific needs without licensing costs.

Possible disadvantages of wxWidgets

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Due to its extensive features and the complexity of configuring UI components, new users may find it challenging to learn and utilize effectively.
  • Large Binary Size
    Applications built with wxWidgets can become quite large, which might be a drawback for developers focusing on lightweight applications.
  • Platform-Specific Bugs
    Since wxWidgets aims to provide native components for each platform, sometimes this leads to platform-specific bugs that can complicate cross-platform consistency.
  • Limited Modern Features
    While wxWidgets is robust, it might lack some of the modern, cutting-edge features found in newer libraries and frameworks in terms of design and ease of use.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies for different platforms can be cumbersome, requiring additional effort in the build and deployment processes.

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 wxWidgets

Overall verdict

  • wxWidgets is a solid choice for developers who need a reliable, cross-platform GUI library with a native look and behavior. Its open-source nature and mature backing make it especially appealing for projects requiring wide platform compatibility.

Why this product is good

  • Platform Independence: wxWidgets allows you to create applications that can run on multiple platforms, such as Windows, macOS, and Linux, without changing the underlying code.
  • Open Source: As an open-source library, wxWidgets is free to use and has a large community supporting it, providing extensive documentation and forums for assistance.
  • Comprehensive Feature Set: wxWidgets provides a wide range of controls and tools that enable developers to build feature-rich applications.
  • Native Look and Feel: The library utilizes the native API of the host system, which means applications built with wxWidgets often look and behave like native applications.
  • Mature and Well-Tested: Having been around for many years, wxWidgets is a mature framework with well-tested tools and a history of stability and reliability.

Recommended for

  • Developers building cross-platform desktop applications.
  • Projects that require native look and feel on different operating systems.
  • Open-source enthusiasts or developers who prefer using community-supported frameworks.
  • Teams seeking a mature and well-documented GUI solution.

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.

wxWidgets videos

Cross Platform Graphical User Interfaces in C++

More videos:

  • Demo - More Cross Platform Graphical User Interfaces in C++: Custom Controls

Visual Studio Community videos

Introducing Visual Studio Community 2015

Category Popularity

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

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Visual Studio Community seems to be a lot more popular than wxWidgets. While we know about 146 links to Visual Studio Community, we've tracked only 10 mentions of wxWidgets. 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.

wxWidgets mentions (10)

  • YAD: Is a simple tool for developing Graphical User Interfaces
    > Are we missing somethng? wxWidgets?[1] [1]: https://wxwidgets.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 7 days ago
  • Lazarus Release 4.0
    > produce relatively small binaries for simple applications The problem is that you need to have a huge Java runtime installed or use something like Jlink which still produces very large binaries for GUI apps. I think wxWidgets is the Lazarus alternative that is the closest to what grandparent was asking for. https://wxwidgets.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 26 days ago
  • What do you think about using a game engine for UI?
    In general, people must make a choice between portability, and the breadth of optimizations. For multi-platform builds, there are single code-base frameworks available: https://quasar.dev/ For MacOS, Linux Gtk, and Windows native builds there are mature free libraries that allow both FOSS and commercial static linking: https://wxwidgets.org/ Game engines are designed to solve a single set of use-cases for... - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Understanding the Layout Process in Qt Widgets
    Why do your prefer it over https://wxwidgets.org given the licenses? Personally, I was keen on Qt right up to the 5.x change over. =3. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Building KiCad 6.0.11 from source - wxWidgets problem
    I decided to compile from scratch the latest wxWidgets from wxwidgets.org. And I compiled and installed successfully for both X11 and GTK. Source: over 1 year ago
View more

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
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing wxWidgets 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

GTK - GTK+ is a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces.

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.

PyQt - Riverbank | Software | PyQt | What is PyQt?

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