Deciding between Visual Studio vs Visual Studio Code is not as easy as choosing between a lightweight editor and a heavyweight IDE. Visual Studio is a cross-platform IDE with some of the most powerful tools for web and mobile application development. Visual Studio Code is a lightweight code editor that can be used on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The code editor Visual Studio Code is an integral part of the Visual Studio suite. It supports IntelliSense (automatic completion of code based on context), debugging, Git integration, and more. On the other hand, Visual Studio is more of an all-in-one tool for everything related to software development, including testing, coding, debugging, and project managing.
Visual Studio Code has all the features developers need in their day-to-day development work with JavaScript or TypeScript. It can easily handle projects, too. Thanks to its fantastic Git integration system. Before we jump straight into the Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code differences, let us explain each term individually first.
For all those individuals who are confused about which one to choose between Visual Studio vs Visual Studio Code, here will explain everything. First, let us start with the definition of both the terms before discussing the Visual Studio Code vs Visual Studio.
What Is Visual Studio?
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The current Visual Studio version is Microsoft’s premier IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for macOS and Windows. With Visual Studio, you can generate, examine, debug, test, help, and use your software.
Visual Studio currently has 17 workloads on Windows. Workloads are a major enhancement to the installation process of Visual Studio because a full Visual Studio installation and download can take hours, especially an SSD.
As compared to the Windows version, the Visual Studio installation process for Mac is less complicated because it does not support as many targets. It enables you to develop for the web, desktop, mobile, and with .Net, Azure, Unity, and Docker support added by default. The Android, .Net Core, macOS, and iOS targets are optional.
Features Of Visual Studio:
- Open technology platform for cross-stack development
- Availability of Community and Professionally developed Plugins
- Cross-Platform installation
- Debug Tools for Generic usage
- And more
What is Visual Studio Code?
It is a lightweight but robust source code compiler that works on your PC and is available for Linux, Windows, and macOS. It comes with a built-in assistant for JavaScript, Node.js, and TypeScript. It has a strong ecosystem of extensions for different languages (C sharp, C++, Java, PHP, Python, and Go) and runtimes (Unity and . Net). It has IntelliSense code completion for procedures, variables, and imported plugins. Aside from the entire concept of being lightweight and starting quickly, it has other useful editing features, such as snazzy code navigation and refactoring. It has a built-in source code command, including Git support. Most of this has been translated from Visual Studio technology.
Visual Studio Code is developed and regularly updated using Node.js, Electron shell, TypeScript, and LSP(Language Server Protocol). The update of extensions is done frequently as per requirements.
Features Of Visual Studio Code:
- Project Explorer
- Project Builder for C sharp and .NET apps
- Build Environment and Output
- Azure Cloud integrations
- Debugging Tools and Break Points
- Test Development Integrations etc.
Visual Studio vs Visual Studio Code: Which Have High Demand
As we discussed above Visual Studio is a cross-platform IDE (Integrated Development Environment) with some of the most powerful tools for web and mobile application development. Visual Studio Code is a lightweight code editor that can be used on Windows, macOS, and Linux. If you compare both Visual Studio vs Visual Studio Code, both are high in demand. But here the question is which has high demand? As you can see in the graph below, the demand for Visual studio was high as compared to Visual Studio Code. But now both are equally in demand. Here the blue line indicates Visual Studio, and the red line denotes Visual Studio Code.
| Visual Studio Visual Studio Code  |
Now let us start with the difference between both Visual Studio vs Visual Studio Code…
Difference Between Visual Studio vs Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio:
- Visual Studio is extensively used on .NET projects. The community version is free, but it is not free if you wish to make the most of it.
- As the name intimates, it is an integrated development environment (IDE), and it includes all the characteristics needed for project development. Like code debugger, auto-completion, database integration, configurations, server setup, and so on.
- Visual Studio is a perfect solution frequently used by and for .NET developers. It includes everything from source control to bug tracker to deployment tools, etc. It has everything required to develop.
- In the most advanced version of VS, you can develop a cross-platform application without departing the IDE. And Visual Studio takes disk space of more than 8 GB.
- Visual Studio is intended to be the world’s best-integrated development environment, which gives full-stack development toolsets. One of them is an important code completion component named IntelliSense, a debugger that can debug both machine code and source code, everything about ASP.NET development and SQL development.
- Visual Studio is the latest development environment, and it’s considerably heavy.
Visual Studio Code:
- As a lightweight source code editor, it is used to view, edit, run, and debug source code for applications.
- Visual Studio does not have any scaffolding support.
- It is largely oriented around files, not projects.
- Developers mainly use it on a Mac that deals with client-side technologies (HTML, JS, and CSS)
- Visual Studio is an emulator of Sublime Text or Atom on Electron.
- It is based on the Electron framework, which is used to build web technologies and cross-platform desktop apps.
- Visual Studio doesn’t have support for the version control system Microsoft Team Foundation Server.
- It has defined IntelliSense for Microsoft file types and similar characteristics.
Visual Studio vs Visual Studio Code: Comparison Table
We hope you are clear with the difference between Visual Studio vs Visual Studio Code. Now to make it easy for you so that you can easily decide which one to choose from Visual Studio vs Visual Studio code, we have given a comparison table on both the terms:
| Visual Studio | Visual Studio Code |
| The visual Studio version is Microsoft’s premier IDE (Integrated Development Environment) | Visual Studio Code is a code editor where you can edit your codes. |
| Visual Studio is a slow cross-platform because it processes slower. | As compared to Visual studio code it is faster. |
| Visual Studio is used for compiling the codes. | But in Visual Studio Code, the compiling feature is not available. |
| It has a free editor and also has a paid IDE. | Visual Studio Code is an absolutely free & open-source text editor. |
| It is important to go through Visual studio If the user needs to work on multiple windows. | Working on multiple windows is not possible with Visual Studio Code. |
| Visual Studio takes disk space of more than 8 GB | It does not require a large download size if you compare it with Visual Studio. |
| Users encounter various challenges with the setting and preferences of Visual Studio. | It is quite easy to use preferences in Visual Studio Code as compared to that of Visual Studio. |
| The visual studio uses excellent and advanced IntelliSense. | It has the least IntelliSense. |
| Visual Studio is used for .NET, C/C++ (Windows), C sharp projects along with databases, SQL Server, etc. | Visual Studio Code shows off HTML / JavaScript support over C++/C. |
Top Companies Using Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code
| Companies Using Visual Studio | Companies Using Visual Studio Code | ||
| Accenture |  | Microsoft |  |
| Alibaba Group |  | Alibaba Group | |
| Microsoft | | CRED |  |
| Via Varejo |  | HENNGE |  |
| Intuit |  | KAVAK |  |
| Agoda |  | Hepsiburada |  |
| Oxylabs |  | Freetrade |  |
| Starbucks |  | trivago |  |
Tools integrate with Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio
| Tools integrate with Visual Studio | Tools integrate with Visual Studio Code |
| .NET Core | GitHub |
| Azure DevOps | .NET Core |
| Windows | Windows |
| TSLint | TSLint |
| Azure Functions | Azure Functions |
| Sauce Labs | Snyk |
| Snyk | Anaconda |
| Anaconda | Visual Studio Live Share |
| Visual Studio Live Share | SonarLint |
Is Visual Studio code better than Visual Studio?
Deciding between Visual Studio Code vs Visual Studio for any software development task is not easy if you don’t have complete knowledge of both. Visual Studio Code can be configured to be pretty close to an Integrated Development Environment for several programming languages.
Visual Studio, for example, will work straight out of the box if your development methodology is test-driven. On the other hand, Visual Studio Code has 15 test-driven development extensions that support Node.js, Go,.Net, and PHP. Similarly, Visual Studio excels at working with databases, particularly Microsoft SQL Server and its offshoots, although Visual Studio Code includes many database extensions. Visual Studio provides excellent refactoring functionality, while Visual Studio Code only covers the basics for a half-dozen languages.
There are a few exceptions to this rule. If you’re a software engineer, for example, and you have accessibility to Visual Studio Enterprise, you’ll want to utilize it. Visual Studio is the superior choice if you need to collaborate on development or debug with other team members. Visual Studio Enterprise can help you with serious code analysis, performance profiling, and debugging from a snapshot. Visual Studio Code tends to be best in the data science community.
Visual Studio is not available for Linux, but Visual Studio Code is. Visual Studio for Windows has a Linux/C++ workload as well as Azure compatibility. For everyday development/test/debug cycles in the languages supported by Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code is mostly a matter of personal choice. Visual Studio could be a better fit if you work on a development project for several hours at a time. Visual Studio Code may make you happier if you do development for short periods.
Conclusion
To sum up, the important difference between Visual Studio vs Visual Studio Code is that f you just want something to write your code with speed and efficiency, Visual Studio Code is for you. It is lightweight and thus works on minimum configuration. And you do have the alternative to add features to it when you need them. And for languages that do not need an IDE (Integrated Development Environment), Visual Studio Code is one of the best options.
Whereas, if you are a professional programmer who requires a lot of resources to develop a project, Visual Studio will be the perfect option. And you still get all the features of Visual Studio Code in Visual Studio. But things will go more moderate and heavy on resources.
We hope you are cleared with the Visual Studio vs Visual Studio Code, in case if you need more information on any of these terms, you can take Visual Studio assignment help or Visual Studio code assignment help.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I install both Visual Studio and Visual Studio code?
Yes, it is possible to install both Visual Studio and Visual Studio simultaneously and safely. Visual Studio Code is a lightweight but powerful source code editor.
Visual Studio vs Visual Studio Code: Are they both the same?
Visual Studio Code is an editor, whereas Visual Studio is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment). Visual Studio Code is cross-platform and quick, but Visual Studio is not as quick as VS code.