--- title: Visual Studio Reviews meta_title: 'Visual Studio Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 4004 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Visual Studio works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.5 review_count: 4004 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-07' parent_category: name: Integrated Development Environments (IDE) url: https://www.g2.com/categories/integrated-development-environments-ide --- # Visual Studio Reviews **Vendor:** Microsoft **Category:** [Java Integrated Development Environments (IDE)](https://www.g2.com/categories/java-integrated-development-environments-ide) **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 4,004 ## About Visual Studio Visual Studio is a comprehensive integrated development environment (IDE) designed to empower developers in building applications across various platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows, web, and cloud. It supports multiple programming languages, such as .NET, C++, Python, and JavaScript, providing a versatile environment for software development. Key Features and Functionality: - IntelliSense: Offers context-aware code suggestions to enhance coding efficiency. - GitHub Copilot Integration: Provides AI-assisted coding to streamline complex tasks. - Advanced Debugging Tools: Includes a robust debugger to identify and resolve issues early in the development process. - Integrated Testing: Facilitates seamless testing with built-in tools for both manual and automated testing. - CI/CD Support: Enables continuous integration and deployment through Git and Azure DevOps integration. - Cross-Platform Development: Supports development for multiple platforms, including mobile, desktop, and cloud applications. Primary Value and Solutions Provided: Visual Studio enhances developer productivity by offering a unified environment that integrates coding, debugging, testing, and deployment tools. Its support for multiple languages and platforms allows developers to create diverse applications efficiently. The integration of AI tools like GitHub Copilot and comprehensive debugging features ensures high-quality code production. Additionally, Visual Studio's support for modern development practices, including CI/CD pipelines and cloud integration, streamlines the software development lifecycle, enabling faster and more reliable application delivery. ## Visual Studio Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users value the **ease of use** in Visual Studio, appreciating its integrated tools and intuitive interface for development. (206 reviews) - Users value the **impressive array of features** in Visual Studio, enhancing productivity and supporting the development lifecycle seamlessly. (181 reviews) - Users value the **all-in-one IDE capabilities** of Visual Studio, which streamline the entire software development process. (153 reviews) - Users value the **extensive functionality** of Visual Studio, enhancing productivity through seamless integration and powerful development tools. (142 reviews) - Users appreciate the **advanced debugging tools** in Visual Studio, enhancing their productivity and improving the development experience. (139 reviews) - Users love the **intuitive code editing experience** in Visual Studio, enhancing speed and reducing errors across various languages. (121 reviews) - Development Efficiency (105 reviews) - IntelliSense (104 reviews) - Git Integration (99 reviews) - Extension Support (88 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users experience **slow performance** with Visual Studio during heavy programming tasks, causing delays and crashes in their workflows. (147 reviews) - Users find that Visual Studio has **high resource consumption** , impacting performance on lower-end machines during extensive programming. (84 reviews) - Users often find the **high memory usage** of Visual Studio impacts performance, especially on lower-end machines. (81 reviews) - Users are frustrated by the **slow startup** time of Visual Studio, impacting their overall efficiency and workflow. (73 reviews) - Users encounter **performance issues** with Visual Studio, including sluggishness and occasional crashes during use. (61 reviews) - Software Heaviness (60 reviews) - High System Requirements (51 reviews) - Users often face **slow loading** times and performance issues, hindering their development experience with Visual Studio. (51 reviews) - Slow Speed (51 reviews) - High Specifications (49 reviews) ## Visual Studio Reviews ### 1. Visual Studio Review **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Moustafa Medhat A. | System Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 28, 2022 **What do you like best about Visual Studio?** I like that Visual Studio provides several programming languages, and it is always up to date. i love that I can change the Visual Studio interface to dark mode, which is good if I am spending a lot of hours on it. Also, I like that Visual studio allows me to choose the version of any library or package. **What do you dislike about Visual Studio?** I cannot create separate environments inside Visual Studio that allows me to work on each project separately. Visual Studio consumes a lot of RAM when running codes which is something insufficient. Also, i do not like the user interface of Visual Studio as it is not smooth, and you can get lost easily inside it. **What problems is Visual Studio solving and how is that benefiting you?** Visual Studio is a great editor that you can use to run any code you want to test, and it is also great if I want to integrate it with other 3rd party applications in my field. ### 2. Well, according to the programming language you use **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Carlos H. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 10, 2018 **What do you like best about Visual Studio?** It integrates very easily with Windows, it is fast, and the latest version is visually very pleasing. It integrates very easily with Windows, it is fast, and the latest version is visually very pleasing. It integrates very easily with Windows, it is fast, and the latest version is visually very pleasing. **What do you dislike about Visual Studio?** Programming AngularJS and some websites can be a bit tedious, I prefer other apps like Sublime Text. Programming AngularJS and some websites can be a bit tedious, I prefer other apps like Sublime Text. Programming AngularJS and some websites can be a bit tedious, I prefer other apps like Sublime Text. **Recommendations to others considering Visual Studio:** Maybe yes, if they like Windows **What problems is Visual Studio solving and how is that benefiting you?** To program AngularJS and some websites that we make. ### 3. Visual Studio review **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 03, 2019 **What do you like best about Visual Studio?** Test and debug window Easy to unit test **What do you dislike about Visual Studio?** Startup and set up time Archival function **Recommendations to others considering Visual Studio:** Check out a training class first and then practice, practice, practice. **What problems is Visual Studio solving and how is that benefiting you?** Tolling solutions Malware removal ### 4. Great for simple projects, Frustrating for more complex projects **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 07, 2017 **What do you like best about Visual Studio?** I've been programming with various forms of VB for years (VBscript, VBA) so its nice to be able to work with a familiar language. Creating forms is also very intuitive to anyone who has ever used Access. I like the idea of being able to create stand alone applications that aren't dependent on other software that may or may not be supported in the future, or may undergo drastic changes that are beyond my control. **What do you dislike about Visual Studio?** It is incredibly difficult to create more complex forms, like trying to replicate a continuous form from Access. There is also no simple way of importing in applications that are already in VBA (such as an Access application), so I basically am starting from scratch on a project that took me one year to program initially, plus I've been continuously improving it over the last twelve years. **Recommendations to others considering Visual Studio:** I do not recommend it for converting legacy Access applications, it is much simpler just to convert them to a more recent version of Access. **What problems is Visual Studio solving and how is that benefiting you?** My goal was to move Access 2003 applications into Visual Studio, however, doing so is not a very straight forward process, and oftentimes is like reinventing the wheel. One day it may be necessary to do this, but for now migrating to Access 2016 is much simpler. ### 5. Needs Improvement **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 25, 2018 **What do you like best about Visual Studio?** It has a set of tools that makes it much easier for continuous integration across different platforms. **What do you dislike about Visual Studio?** Installation takes a lot of time and space. Often buggy and slow. **Recommendations to others considering Visual Studio:** Newer version has less bloat. **What problems is Visual Studio solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used it for web development with ASP.NET. Both are Microsoft products therefore they are highly recommended to be used together. ### 6. A rigid tool that locks you into the Microsoft environment **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 21, 2018 **What do you like best about Visual Studio?** Has a good ide with code completion, a selection of themes and the integrated debugger is pretty good **What do you dislike about Visual Studio?** They keep updating the software without offering backward compatibility. And they insist on doing things through the GUI without offering avenue to do it through text files **What problems is Visual Studio solving and how is that benefiting you?** Solving a research problem to simulate Dynamics of a system. Published a few papers through the software I developed ### 7. Good IDE for .NET development **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2018 **What do you like best about Visual Studio?** Having access to all Microsoft services in one place. This is truly an all encompassing IDE. Great integration with .NET and ASP.NET, obviously. Integration with Git and TFS is a great addition and saves time. **What do you dislike about Visual Studio?** VS is a memory HOG. Long startup time. Frequently will cause entire machine to hang for long periods at a time on startup or loading/unloading a solution. Don’t try to run this in a virtual machine or Bootcamp. The resource management when doing so will make you hattte visual studio. **What problems is Visual Studio solving and how is that benefiting you?** Developing using a combination of older MVC and Razor mixed with new Node.js modules using Angular. ### 8. VS **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Matt K. | CTO, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Visual Studio?** The VS web feature has made it very easy to go from any PC and program without the need of an installation. **What do you dislike about Visual Studio?** Lack of features compared to desktop version. **Recommendations to others considering Visual Studio:** At very easy to work with others using version control such as GitHub **What problems is Visual Studio solving and how is that benefiting you?** CMS plugin programming ### 9. Obtuse and unnecessary for non .NET projects **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Electronics | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Visual Studio?** The IntelliSense features are useful...when they work. The IDE is fairly easy to navigate. **What do you dislike about Visual Studio?** The 2013 version very frequently hangs, locks up, and crashes on large projects. Opened tabs and pinned tabs are only occasionally remembered through crashes or exiting out of the IDE. **Recommendations to others considering Visual Studio:** Look elsewhere if not using C#/.NET **What problems is Visual Studio solving and how is that benefiting you?** The debugging features are helpful over just using a text editor, but I believe other products offer the same features in a better package. ### 10. Not designed for BI **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Natalia M. | Risk Manager, Insurance, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 23, 2016 **What do you like best about Visual Studio?** Visual Studio is a very powerful development environment, that gives programmers control over every aspect of their project **What do you dislike about Visual Studio?** I use Visual Studio with the Business Intelligence Development Studio add in for SSRS report development. The BI development tools are clearly an afterthought. The solution explorer is not well integrated into the tool. In addition, the process of modifying the visual components of reports is much more awkward than it ought to be. One thing that is a significant irritation: there is no clear way to confirm when building a report whether the PDF output of the report will fit in a single page width. **Recommendations to others considering Visual Studio:** Make extensive use of templates, it streamlines the report development process considerably. **What problems is Visual Studio solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am using Visual Studio to develop SSRS reports for both internal and external customers. By implementing these reports in SSRS, we are able to then make them available for email subscriptions, so customers can receive the information they need without manual intervention by IT or analytical staff. ### 11. My experience with VS **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alberto S. | Computer Games, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 28, 2015 **What do you like best about Visual Studio?** The options of using extensions to improve its usability (Enterprise version). **What do you dislike about Visual Studio?** The constant nagging about logging in with your MS account and be social. **Recommendations to others considering Visual Studio:** Try Visual Studio Community, it is free. If you are looking for a minimalistic version of it, you might want to try Visual Studio Code for a more "What You See Is What You Get" thing. This one is fairly new (from early May 2015) so do not expect a completely polished product. **What problems is Visual Studio solving and how is that benefiting you?** Deploy existing builds of Unity projects into Windows devices. ## Visual Studio Discussions - [What is Visual Studio used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-visual-studio-used-for) - 10 comments, 1 upvote - [My reviews are all getting rejected](https://www.g2.com/discussions/my-reviews-are-all-getting-rejected) - 2 comments, 1 upvote - [What does Visual Studio subscription include?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-does-visual-studio-subscription-include) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [how to use for python program](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-to-use-for-python-program) - 2 comments, 1 upvote - [How to install opencv](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-to-install-opencv) - 2 comments, 1 upvote - [View Visual Studio pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/visual-studio/reviews?filters%5Bnps_score%5D%5B%5D=2§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-09+03%3A27%3A11+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=9d87b2c3-f8f8-417a-aa42-22af4334c750&secure%5Btoken%5D=1fbf31517a943f588bf143d2e1c3bb38f2acb90df98f1f8055d053dae86d1333&format=llm_user) ## Visual Studio Integrations - 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Version Control - Configurable Workflow - Graphical User Interface - For Low-Code Development - Activity Dashboard - Generative AI - UI Prototyping - Source Control - Software Development - API - Data Import/Export - Web App Development - Custom Development - Code Repository Integration - Data Security - Mobile Development - Access Controls/Permissions - Game Development - Collaboration Tools - Application Security - Alerts/Notifications - Automated Testing - Integrated Development Environment - Offline Access - Debugging - AI Copilot - Reporting/Analytics - Compatibility Testing - Pre-built Templates - Third-Party Integrations - Data Modeling - Customizable Branding - Data Visualization - Code Editing **Functionality** - Ease of Use - File Management - Multi-Language Support - Customization - Straight-Out-the-Box Functionality - Help Guides - Patching & Updates - Deployment Management **Functionality** - Ease of Use - File Management - Multi-Language Support - Customization - Straight-Out-the-Box Functionality - Help Guides - Patching & Updates **Functionality** - Ease of Use - File Management - Multi-Language Support - Customization - Straight-Out-the-Box Functionality - Help Guides - Patching & Updates - Workflow Management - Change Management - Deployment Management - Performance Management - Compliance Management - Lifecycle Management - Task Management - Document Management - Database Support **Agentic AI - Mobile Development Platforms** - Adaptive Learning - Natural Language Interaction - Proactive Assistance **Additional Functionality** - Code Development - Debugging - AI Copilot - Generative AI - Game Development - Web/Mobile App Development - Data Modeling - For Developers - Code Editing - Website Development - Graphical User Interface ## Top Visual Studio Alternatives - [Xcode](https://www.g2.com/products/xcode/reviews) - 4.2/5.0 (999 reviews) - [Eclipse](https://www.g2.com/products/eclipse/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (3,097 reviews) - [NetBeans](https://www.g2.com/products/netbeans/reviews) - 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