We use Microsoft Visual Studio for application development and our customers.
Enterprise Solutions Department Manager at Smart Vision
A standalone source code editor that has a useful IDE
Pros and Cons
- "I like the IDE or the integrated development environment. It's the best IDE."
- "IntelliSense could be better."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
I like the IDE or the integrated development environment. It's the best IDE.
What needs improvement?
IntelliSense could be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Visual Studio for 20 years.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability is excellent.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is excellent. We have about 15 developers using this solution in our organization.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. It took less than 30 minutes to implement this solution.
What about the implementation team?
We deployed this solution in-house.
What was our ROI?
We have received a return on our investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Licensing costs are reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to potential users.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give Microsoft Visual Studio a ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Chief Information Technology Officer at BMC Solutions
A free solution with good technical support, stability, performance and ease of use
Pros and Cons
- "I like the performance, stability and ease of use."
- "I would like to see more tools in the next release."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for development purposes.
What is most valuable?
The solution is a very good tool. I like the performance, stability and ease of use.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see more tools in the next release.
For how long have I used the solution?
Since Microsoft Visual Studio comprises the core of Microsoft development, we have been making use of it for 15 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I like the solution's stability.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is fine.
What about the implementation team?
We have no need for deployment, as this can be handled by the individual user.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is a free tool.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is deployed both on-premises and in the cloud.
I cannot think of features which should be included in the next release, as they already upgrade the solution on their own.
The solution is a very good product. There is no need for better integration.
All of our customers use the solution. It is on a desktop application. We have around 40 developers.
I would definitely recommend the solution to others.
I rate Microsoft Visual Studio as a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Visual Studio
May 2025

Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Visual Studio. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
851,823 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Works at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
It is flexible enough to let me use Git as well as its own version control mechanism. It would be nice if its extensions and updates could self-correct.
Pros and Cons
- "We use TFS for our scrums, which links our tasks to actual code changes."
- "It is also flexible enough to let me use Git as well as its own version control mechanism."
- "It would be nice if Visual Studio's extensions and updates could self-correct, if they are not working or disabled, and also inform the user."
What is our primary use case?
Creating web sites and APIs using Angular, jQuery, MVC, and Web API. Desktop and server side assets are primarily in C#, however I use it to edit older ASPX pages for web apps written in VB.NET.
How has it helped my organization?
It is an excellent IDE, but the corporate features are what set it apart. We use TFS for our scrums, which links our tasks to actual code changes.
What is most valuable?
Personally, in my job as a developer, the version control system has been very helpful. It is also flexible enough to let me use Git as well as its own version control mechanism.
What needs improvement?
It would be nice if Visual Studio's extensions and updates could self-correct, if they are not working or disabled, and also inform the user. Lately, for example, NuGet Package Manager has failed gracefully, but it did not say why.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Infrastructure Expert at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Visual Studio will continue to be a industry standard IDE for Windows for the foreseeable future.
Valuable Features:
The Visual Studio IDE is excellent in design and function. It allows you to code for a wide variety of software, including web and platform software. It supports quite a few different programming languages. It also has a GUI based visual interface editor built in, which is easy to use and allows for quick turn around in prototyping software designs.There is a free "Express" version of the IDE software available as well.
Room for Improvement:
.NET apps are only compatible with Windows Phone 8 and Windows platforms. Visual Basic.NET is the primary language that Visual Studio is targeted for. Also, the price for the IDE can be expensive.
Other Advice:
Personally, I prefer using Visual Studio as it has the code auto-complete feature, which is really awesome if you've forgotten the name of the function or API that you are calling.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Head of .NET Department at Evozon
It covers everything you need for custom software development, including architecture for automation testing
Pros and Cons
- "Visual Studio is a tool used for custom software development. It covers everything under this umbrella, including architecture for automation testing."
- "There have been some issues but not very often."
What is our primary use case?
Visual Studio is a tool used for custom software development. It covers everything under this umbrella, including architecture for automation testing. We have between 60 and 70 users working with Visual Studio.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Microsoft Visual Studio for 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Visual Studio is stable enough. There have been some issues but not very often.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Visual Studio is a development environment. It only runs on one computer. Everyone has their own installation. If we talk about the cloud version, it's scalable. It has served our needs. We plan to increase usage by 5 to 10 percent as our departments grow.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have been using Microsoft Visual Studio since .NET first came out. Prior to that, I used tools with other software development languages like Eclipse. Eclipse was an IDE-independent software vendor.
How was the initial setup?
Installing Visual Studio is easy on average. Sometimes you need to install various libraries, so it depends on your setup. I would say it's medium difficulty.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Microsoft Visual Studio nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Information Technology Analyst at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
It supports multiple languages but the UI could be more user-friendly
Pros and Cons
- "We like Visual Studio because you can choose the different types of languages, like JavaScript. I think it's better than the other solutions I used."
- "The interface could be more user friendly"
What is most valuable?
We like Visual Studio because you can choose the different types of languages, like JavaScript. I think it's better than the other solutions I used.
What needs improvement?
The interface could be more user friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with Visual Studio for about two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Yeah. Stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I think it's good.
How are customer service and support?
Microsoft support is quite responsive to our questions.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used Sublime before.
How was the initial setup?
Straightforward
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Contractor/ Developer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
User-friendly, reliable, and has a good online community support
Pros and Cons
- "It's a useful integrated development environment."
- "It is simple to use for most developers and nearly impossible to use for non-developers."
What is our primary use case?
I work as a developer. I code in it using Microsoft Visual Studio.
What is most valuable?
Basically everything. It's a useful integrated development environment.
It is easy to use.
It is simple to use for me.
What needs improvement?
It is simple to use for most developers and nearly impossible to use for non-developers.
For how long have I used the solution?
For the last 10 to 20 years, I've been using various versions of Microsoft Visual Studio.
I am working with the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft Visual Studio is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability does not apply to the solution.
I am the only user in my company.
How are customer service and support?
It's good. Again, I'm using the community edition, which is the free version. It's an open-source, free version. It lacks support because I am not paying anything. I'm getting help from various public forums and community websites.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I am familiar with Google Chrome, Gmail, and Visual Studio. I now own a small company that does some development. I am a one-man operation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am working with the open-source community version, which is free.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it.
I would rate Microsoft Visual Studio a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Programmer Specialist II at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Great code management feature; improved stability has increased reliability for us
Pros and Cons
- "Code management is a new and convenient feature."
- "File installations are heavy."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution to develop web applications. I'm a programmer specialist II and we're customers of Visual Studio.
What is most valuable?
I think the code management is the most convenient and valuable new feature. Deployment of the solution is also a very smooth process.
What needs improvement?
I think the file installations could be improved because they're very heavy and I'd like to see the solution support Python for developing purposes.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In the previous versions, the product wasn't so stable, but in this latest 2019 version they have fixed the issue and it's now a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good in this solution. We have about five developers in the company using it on a regular basis.
How are customer service and technical support?
I'm very satisfied with the support.
How was the initial setup?
It is easy to install, the only issue being that it takes up a lot of memory. We had two people involved with the deployment and implementation took a few days. We didn't use any consultants, we just followed the documentation.
What other advice do I have?
This is a simple product to use and the best advice I can give is to follow the documentation.
I would rate this solution an eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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Code auto completion facility is also available in other IDEs' like Eclipse. So, if this facility is the only reason for preferring Visual Studio, than why you dont prefer Eclipse?