Differences between Visual Studio Community Edition and Express Editions
First of all, both are free! Visual Studio Community Edition is newly released today.
There are two main differences between Visual Studio Community Edition and the Express Editions that is documented by the Visual Studio MVP Kent Bryant on his blog.
Visual Studio Community vs. Visual Studio Express.
Comments
Anonymous
November 12, 2014
What I've read: "Soma mentioned in today's Connect event that Visual Studio Community Edition may retire Visual Studio Express Editions in future, but this is not decided yet." What I understood: "Soma said Visual Studio Community Edition will retire Visual Studio Express Editions soon!" By the way, Good job on Visual Studio Community! It is needless to say how it will be usefull ;)Anonymous
November 12, 2014
Thank you so much! This is just wonderful. Any guidance about if we need to get rid of Express before installing Community?Anonymous
November 12, 2014
Can this version attach to a process?Anonymous
November 12, 2014
@Fallon Yes, it can.Anonymous
November 12, 2014
Does this version still need registering (activation) in 30 days or can it be used in a fully offline environment unlike the express editions?Anonymous
November 12, 2014
Does it required registration ? Let me explain you problem. I have visual studio 2013 professional trial installed and it was get expired way back.Today I came to know about Visual studio 2013 community edition so I uninstalled Professional and installed community edition. It still display that it get expired.Anonymous
November 12, 2014
@bob: You still need to register for more than 30 days trial.Anonymous
November 12, 2014
What are the differences between the Community Edition and the Licensed Versions i.e. Visual Studio Ultimate??Anonymous
November 12, 2014
Hello: What is the difference between VS Community and VIsual Studio Shell? I use the shell to test the extension that I develop too (vsix). Any aditional feature?Anonymous
November 12, 2014
Can the Community Edition also do the same kind of web development that was in the Express web edition?Anonymous
November 13, 2014
I hope that the Express editions are never retired: sometimes it is just the ticket to have a lean, focussed, uncluttered environment for working on small and simple projects.Anonymous
November 13, 2014
If you read the FAQ: www.visualstudio.com/.../visual-studio-community-vs Visual Studio 2013 Community has the same features as the Professional SKU!Anonymous
November 14, 2014
Then so how does the Community Edition differ from Professional? Is there any reason to use one edition over the other? What are the advantages or disadvantages of using the Professional Edition over the Community Edition? As a student I am currently eligible to use the Professional Edition for free. But perhaps it would be more advantageous for me to use Community. Is it?Anonymous
November 14, 2014
@Glen Differences between Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition and Visual Studio 2013 Pro Edition: blogs.msdn.com/.../differences-between-visual-studio-2013-community-edition-and-visual-studio-2013-pro-edition.aspxAnonymous
November 14, 2014
I see. So basically there is no difference between Community and Professional, except you can do Enterprise application development (which I assume means in a for-profit business?). If so, then I guess there is really no reason a student needs the Professional version. Unless there was some difference that will better prepare me for work in the industry; so that I don't need to learn something new once I transition into industry development work. Not sure what they mean by the Community edition being "designed and optimized for individual developers, students, open source contributors, and small teams..."Anonymous
November 14, 2014
Where can I find the iso file download for community expressAnonymous
November 17, 2014
So.. TL;DR: Community Edition = Express Editions + Plugins + Cross-Platform. But it will not replace Express. The only question left: Why is the rum gone?Anonymous
November 17, 2014
Can we get a Visual Studio build server edition?Anonymous
November 17, 2014
@Romoku There's already MSBuild for that very purpose. Sadly not everything you do in VS is supported so YMMV.Anonymous
November 18, 2014
I didn't Web essential for update 4 and web essential disabled now in my express. Is that means you guys don't care for me like who use Express version. can you clear if we still got WE 2014 for express.Anonymous
November 19, 2014
You can find the iso offline installer in this link: www.visualstudio.com/.../download-visual-studio-vsAnonymous
November 23, 2014
This is a great move! I think that Microsoft should go even further and make Visual Studio Community have the same features as Visual Studio Premium has today, or at least they should include the test management and UI test tools in the free edition. Currently Microsoft tools are just too expensive for many startup companies and independent developers, so these users choose the open source and free tools. Their choice naturally leads these users into the competitive tools and environments where they will tend to use services from competitors. Microsoft tools are better and if they are tightly integrated with Microsoft services then these users will choose the tools because they are better and then use the services because it is easier. I recently went through a technology assessment for a new public service project. I decided that Microsoft was too expensive but ultimately I chose Microsoft technologies only because the experience benefits me in my regular job. If it had not been for that, I would have chosen the java and open source path for sure, and I would have used Amazon web services instead of Azure.Anonymous
December 03, 2014
Thank you Microsoft. As a hobby programmer I have often been annoyed about how I can't use a specific addon/extension because I were always running the Express editions.Anonymous
January 27, 2015
Thanks! So VS Community is just kind of VS Express but better? Cool that they're making it free! i love cross platform!! :)Anonymous
February 10, 2015
Can i use Visual Studio Community Edition for C/C++ progamming learning purpose?Anonymous
February 11, 2015
Can it install the community edition without removing/updating VS2010Pro ? I have to maintain existing project using VS2010 but want to benefit from the new edition.Anonymous
February 24, 2015
The comment has been removedAnonymous
March 07, 2015
Can I have both Visual Studio Express 2013 and Visual Studio Community 2013 on my computer?Anonymous
March 10, 2015
If community version is much, better, more simple and equally free, so why always an express version ?Anonymous
June 04, 2015
Developer may use VS Community Edition only for non-enterprise projects (not for profit). With Express Editions constrained but profitable development of enterprise projects. Do not like restrictions? Purchase VS Professional or more...Anonymous
July 09, 2015
What about a for-profit company, that doesn't sell software or IT services, that has fewer than 250 PCs, but more than US$1 million annual revenue, where VS is used to make internal-use software? With fewer than 5 programmers. It seems to me that the "US$1 million annual revenue" clause makes VS 2013 Community un-usable. But VS 2013 Express is OK to use for free. Am I correct?Anonymous
July 22, 2015
If the Express Editions (which are licensed for commercial use) are retired, will the community edition then be licensed for commercial use? If not, will our only option be to purchase a professional edition?Anonymous
October 05, 2015
Can you deploy applications to production in Community Edition?Anonymous
October 26, 2015
I'm glad to have found that Community seems to be a better development environment than Express. I've installed VS 2015 for the evaluation period, but really, it seems like I'd be better just to uninstall it and then install Community and avoid the transition. If I read the information correctly, a small shop can develop commercial software on Community, and sell it, as long as the shop has fewer than five programmers involved, or less than $1 Million in annual revenues. That would cover most of us who work as individuals (I promise, as soon as I've sold 100 copies of my software I'll buy a copy of Pro!). Am I reading that correctly? Thank you so much for Community; the price is right and it provides a wonderful opportunity. BTW will there be an upgrade price on Pro from, say, VS 2010, or just the single price of $499 for any purchase of Pro (without MSDN)?Anonymous
December 01, 2015
Why the express take more space than community? Both are ugly big and havy. I do not see reason for such monstersAnonymous
January 20, 2016
Does crystal report comes in visual studio professional with/without msdn?Anonymous
February 01, 2016
Still no negative comments? Strange. I am using Express 2013 for a huge project (for desktop) written in C, yes C, I started it many years ago with Visual Studio 6.0 (which was great IMHO!) and I don't see valid reasons for converting it to C++. There are strong limitations of Express versions for GUI development, so some months ago I tried to convert/upgrade to VS Community, but I had big problems in loading my project and getting it compiled and linked! There are lot of incompatibilities! So I switched back to Express 2013, and I am still in search of a valid alternative, but maybe I will give Community another try in next months. None of you had similar problems?Anonymous
March 27, 2016
I have a question: as per licenses, Microsoft restrict a use of community edition with only 5 users. So are there any restrictions for the Express edition of Visual Studio?Anonymous
April 01, 2016
I am using the Community Edition for ASP and it is bad, bad, bad. It takes forever to load a page and when the page loads it only loads a portion of the page. After waiting it will finally load the whole page. Poor!Anonymous
October 29, 2016
Thanks a lot! This is an superb web-site!.Anonymous
November 19, 2016
Can i ask if also Visual Studio Express requires the registration after 30 days of use ?Anonymous
December 06, 2016
Is it that express editions are simpler versions for learners?Anonymous
January 26, 2017
There's a important difference on legal side too. Community edition EULA forbids use on enterprise environments, express editions don't.Anonymous
February 23, 2017
does the visual studio express edition permit click once deployment?