Visual Studio vs Visual Studio Code: Navigating Microsoft IDEs

Microsoft Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code are two widely used development tools. But what should you consider when deciding which one to work with? After all, both tools come loaded with distinct features: development enhancement, debugging, and code implementation. Here, we will discuss how they differ in capabilities, utility, pricing, features, and other critical factors. Let's dive.

The importance of choosing the right integrated development environment

The right integrated development environment can help developers accelerate development and delivery. It ensures standardization of operation, improves code accuracy and efficiency, achieves better integration, and automatically creates executables. Some of the factors that developers should consider when choosing an IDE are cost, speed, debugging ability, compatibility, ease of use, available packages, libraries, and reliability.

Code editors share some qualities with IDEs, although they generally have fewer features. Code editors mainly focus on efficient code editing, while IDEs provide a more comprehensive toolkit.

What is Visual Studio?

Visual Studio is an IDE that provides built-in support for effectively developing, editing, debugging, and deploying web-based and mobile applications. It contains programming utilities like IntelliSense, compiler, debugger, and more, making it a complete IDE.

Advantages of Visual Studio

Here are some of the benefits of using Visual Studio:

• Coding assistance: Visual Studio provides real-time coding assistance to developers, regardless of the language they use, with the help of IntelliSense.
• Testing platform: The application testing platform in Visual Studio helps developers with debugging. Developers can debug remotely or locally.
• Collaboration support: The more attention to the code, the better. Visual Studio comes equipped with collaborative features to increase team productivity.
• Customization: Visual Studio allows extensive customizations with the help of add-ons and extensions available on the VS Marketplace.
• Multilingual Support: Its robust functionality can be leveraged for multiple languages ​​like C++, Python, TypeScript, SQL, and more.

Disadvantages of Visual Studio

Visual Studio also has its disadvantages. Here are the cons of using Visual Studio:

• Resource intensive: Visual Studio is a heavy IDE. Developers will have to upgrade their computers to achieve continuous code development because VS is resource intensive.
• Steep learning curve: Using Visual Studio can be quite intimidating for beginners because it is one of the most robust and complete integrated development environments available.
• Limited cross-platform development: Visual Studio, unlike other IDEs, only offers limited support for cross-platform development.

What is Visual Studio Code?

Visual Studio Code is essentially a code editor and is also called a “mini version” of Visual Studio. This lightweight, open-source text editor offers tons of customizations and is useful for developers looking for a community version of a development environment. Centered on ease, speed, flexibility, and extensibility, VSC is ideal for developers branching into .NET or C#.

Advantages of Visual Studio Code

Here are some of the benefits of using Visual Studio Code:

• Multi-Language Support: Supports different programming languages, including Java, Python, C++, and JavaScript, and their syntax, code completion features, and tools.
• Feature-rich IDE: Features like Git integration, endless extensions, debugging tools, and more help developers create a complete and reliable workflow using Visual Studio Code.
• Allows customizations: VSC is highly customizable and allows developers to configure the interface as per their preferences. It is an excellent platform for creating a supportive programming environment.
• Large community for support: Visual Studio Code has a large community of developers who create and maintain extensions and plug-ins for continuous development.
• Fast and efficient: Visual Studio Code is lightweight, fast and efficient.

Disadvantages of Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code also has some disadvantages. Here are the ones you should know:

• Not beginner-friendly: Beginners may take more time to learn how to use the editor efficiently because it has a lot of features and integrations to offer.
• Requires configuration: Developers creating code in VSC often need to configure the editor, making ongoing code development difficult.
• Resource-intensive: Developers with less powerful computers may find Visual Studio Code highly resource-intensive, especially if they need multiple extensions or want to run large projects.

Key differences between Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code

Now let's look at the main differences between Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code.

These key differences are what set this IDE and the code editor apart. But which is better? Let's find out.

Visual Studio vs. Visual Studio Code: Who Wins?

The fierce competition between VS and VSC shows that both are very competent tools. The former is highly feature-rich and the latter is highly configurable. In other words, its application would certainly depend on the specific requirements of the project. Therefore, it is best to look at the following Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code use cases:

When to use Visual Studio?

Developers must use Visual Studio to develop and create cross-platform software applications, such as desktop, mobile, and web applications; web services and much more. Visual Studio is an excellent choice if you need powerful debugging tools, project management tools, and source control. Ideally, it should be used to manage projects, write code, debug and test applications.

When to use Visual Studio Code?

Developers should consider Visual Studio Code if they need support for:

• Many programming languages
• Simultaneous support for multiple projects
• Cross-platform support
• Web development support
• A hierarchical structure
• Terminal support
• Git support and repositories
• Extensions

VSC should be used to write, edit, and debug code. It can help with all types of development projects (with the right tool integrations).

Common questions

Which companies use Visual Studio?

More than 1,700 companies like Accenture, Intuit, Alibaba Travels, ViaVarejo, Yousign, Oxylabs, Statista and others use Visual Studio.

Which companies use Visual Studio Code?

More than 4,570 companies like CRED, Trivago, Groww, KAVAK, Revolut, Graphy, Typeform, and more use Visual Studio Code.

What tools integrate with Visual Studio?

Azure DevOps, .NET Core, NuGet, Azure Functions, CanvasJS and others are some of the tools that can be integrated with Visual Studio.

What tools integrate with Visual Studio Code?

Tools such as .NET Core, TSLint, Pylint, GitHub Copilot, AWS Cloud Development, Anaconda, Apache OpenWhisk and others can be integrated with Visual Studio Code.

Which is better for beginners: Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code?

Beginners looking for an IDE should opt for Visual Studio Code as it has enough features and tools for newer users. Visual Studio has more features, but beginners may not need them at first. Furthermore, Visual Studio Code is operating system independent, meaning it can be used on any operating system.

Is Visual Studio Code just a lighter version of Visual Studio?

Visual Studio Code is lighter than Visual Studio because it only takes up a few hundred MBs on your computer and can be installed on any operating system. However, its size should not be confused with a weakness, as VSC is a very powerful integrated development environment.