Visual studio community edition commercial use and licensing

Question

Hello,

I have a newly startup company (self proprietary) with only 1 employee myself. The annual revenue is very well less than 1 million usd (currently zero).

Can i use visual studio community edition now and then switch over to professional as my revenue increases.

I am interested in using MFC for my work. Is it available in professional monthly subscription plan ?

Regards
Shaheen

Answer 1

Hi, @Shaheen Ratnani

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

You can use the community version of Visual Studio to develop and test your programs.

According to this document, you belong to an organization but not an enterprise, and you meet the requirements of this part:
If none of the above apply, and you are also not an enterprise (defined below), then up to 5 of your individual users can use the software concurrently to develop and test your applications.

You can use MFC components in both the community edition and the professional edition. You can check the Visual Studio Community component directory document.

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Update:
As long as your company does not meet the enterprise definition, and no more than five people use Visual Studio.you can sell your software.
This is the definition of enterprise:
(a) More than 250 PCs or users.
(b) Annual income is USD 1 million (or equivalent in other currencies).

Sincerely,
Peng
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Answer 2

Maybe you're looking for the EULA.
https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/license-terms/

--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--

Answer 3

See Compare Visual Studio Product Offerings. The professional edition has everything the community edition has. The only difference I see is, as you know, the professional edition is required for enterprises, except there seems to be more for CodeLens in the professional edition, whatever that is. It is exceptionally normal for Microsoft to support upgrades such as you are asking about. I think you can be confident that Microsoft will continue to support you as you grow. Also see Microsoft for Startups; I know nothing more than what is in that page except I know that Microsoft often can help startup businesses.