Visual Studio vs. VSCode
Let us look at the differences between Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code by comparing various factors.
|
Factors |
Visual Studio |
Visual Studio Code |
|---|---|---|
|
Main Function |
Visual Studio is an Integrated Development Environment, i.e. it is fully equipped to build a complete application |
Visual Studio Code is primarily a text editor. You can use it to develop and debug your code. |
|
Processing Speed |
Visual Studio is slower across varying Operating Systems. |
VSCode is quick due to its lightweight nature |
|
Pricing |
Visual Studio Community Edition is free, but the professional and enterprise editions require monthly payments. |
VSCode is completely free of cost and is open-source. Most of the extensions are also free but some might include paid upgrades |
|
Intellisense |
Visual Studio engages a highly advanced IntelliSense and also has IntelliCode – an AI powered code completion aid. |
IntelliSense is comparatively not up to the mark in VSCode. |
|
Size |
Atleast 20-50 GB space is required as the software’s needs range from 850 MB – 210 GB depending on the features required. |
Compared to Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code is pretty lightweight as this small download takes <500 MB of disk space. |
|
Space Requirements |
For smooth operation atleast 16 GB RAM is recommended and an SSD backup for extra space is also suggested for smooth working. |
VSCode comparatively does not need a lot of space to run. It can easily run on <1GB RAM. |
|
OS Support |
Currently, Visual Studio runs on macOS and Windows, with the macOS version to be retired soon. |
VSCode can run on macOS, Windows as well as Linux. |
|
Extensions |
A few extensions such as Documentation Support, Extensibility, etc. are available. New extension development is supported. |
VSCode comes with a wide range of professionally curated plugins and extensions to meet all kinds of editing and compiling needs. |
|
Language support |
Visual Studio has built-in support for multiple languages such as C++, C#, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, .NET, etc. |
VSCode supports JavaScript, Typescript, and Node JS out of the box. It also supports other programming languages – as long as the extension(s) exist for that |
Therefore, before starting a project, developers should understand the requirements of their project in depth and note the peculiarities, i.e.,
- Check out relevant extensions (VSCode)
- If they require Azure Integration for cloud-based services (Visual Studio)
- Discuss the relevant experiences of individuals from the community (Both)
They can also consider their personal preferences as some members of their team might prefer one environment over the other.
Visual Studio vs Visual Studio Code – What to Choose in 2024?
The overlap of confusion caused amongst the developer community – especially for those individuals who are new to it – about the difference between Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code (let us refer to it as VSCode to avoid ambiguity) is something of a rite of passage.
The confusion is well placed as both the products have a great many similarities. For starters, they are both developed by Microsoft, they are both used to develop code and the most misleading similarity of them all is their names. But regardless of how similar they seem, they are not the same.
However, before we can get into the differences between the two, one distinction needs to be made clear: Text-Editor vs. IDE.