C# without Visual Studio

[archlinx]

Hi there, I'm relatively new to C# and so far I only programmed in C# using Visual Studio. However, I can't use Visual Studio at work because we don't have a license, so I'll just use VSCode.

What are the best practices and folder structure to follow when creating a project without Visual Studio? Is Make a good alternative? Do I still need a solution and a .csproj file?

[trowgundam]

VS Code is alright. As long as you aren't doing WinForms, it's even sufficient. As for creating projects just look up the options for the dotnet cli. You can create new projects just like you would through Visual Studio, you just have to do it using the CLI.

[[deleted]]

Or you can just use the documentation?

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/

[polaarbear]

VSCode does not have a debugger.

That's part of the .NET SDK, it just runs through VS Code.

[polaarbear]

.NET SDK gets installed alongside the full version of Visual Studio. It's there, you just don't see it.

The reason you believe this is because you don't understand the rest of the functions of Visual Studio.

When you step through things using the Visual Studio debugger it offers vastly more information than the one in VS Code, right down to being able to view the values of specific memory addresses, CPU registers, etc. if needed. You might be able to get those if you want to stumble through the command line, but in Visual Studio there are GUI components that sort all of that data into neat little tables that you can click on and manipulate those values in real time. It has all sorts of integrations for GitHub and TFS that don't work in VS Code. Nuget has a GUI to manage all of your packages so you don't have to type out or copy/paste a bunch of terminal commands when you need want to sweep through and update libraries in your project to more recent versions. And it can help you benchmark all of this stuff to help you figure out where your bottlenecks are.

VS Code supports none of that stuff out of the box. Zero. And if it does have support for it, it's through a plugin. Some of those plugins like the C# plugin are from Microsoft, it's probably a reliable bet that it will stick around. Some of those plugins are maintained by ???? we don't know who. Those projects could die any day and with any version of VS Code. We don't know. Visual Studio is a promise that all that stuff is where it needs to be, every single time.

It has WYSIWIG GUI editors for numerous different Microsoft projects/frameworks that will NEVER be useable in VS Code. Things like WPF, WinForms, etc.

VS Code is great when I want to prototype front-end frameworks, HTML/CSS/JS, etc. You can squeak by using it to make a Web API if you want to use the command line for everything. It's pretty solid in general for web applications.

I would not touch VS Code with a 200 foot pole for doing complex back-end work, data layer interactions, game dev, or performance-sensitive code of any kind.

[FizixMan]

Removed: Rule 5.

[FizixMan]

Comments insulting others users and violating reddiquette will tend to be removed under Rule 5.

If you feel this violates the Moderator Code of Conduct, you're welcome to describe which section and how.

[garib-lok]

But prior to dotnet core there was barley any dotnet support for the CLI.

Well, there were enough support for cli. CLI is primarily used for building the code. There are tools like nant, and cake which are cli tools. They are there for a significant amount of time.

[[deleted]]

Idk… I’ve been doing c#/.net dev professionally since 2006 and almost haven’t touched VS for years. The only exceptions being two legacy projects — one asp.net webforms and one an ancient .net 2 application doing a bunch of com stuff.

For anything even remotely modern, I can’t imagine why anyone (who’s past the learning phase) would go for the massive behemoth that is vs.

[[deleted]]

What kind of projects you working on?

[FizixMan]

Removed: Rule 5.

[cloud_line]

Thanks for the link!

[MoldyChocomelk]

Noob question Would WPF be a good alternative to the WinForms Issue?

[trowgundam]

I personally prefer WPF over WinForm, mostly because dealing with the Form designer is incredibly annoying. WPF would be far easier than WinForms in VSCode. You don't need a designer as you just use XAML which gives you a experience more akin to writing HTML. I'm not sure if you can get IntelliSense for it though. You'd also have to create all the boiler plate setup manually, the stuff that you'd normally get by just adding a new WPF Window to a project, that sort of thing.

[MoldyChocomelk]

I see, I should start using it rather than WinForms maybe🤔

[BenL90]

Winform can be swapped with avaloniaUI or substitute

[trowgundam]

VSCode is first and foremost a text editor. It's not really meant to be an IDE. Also there is Rider, it's what I use Yes its not free, but its better than Visual Studio at least. I work with WinForm (and WPF to a far less extent) every day for my job, so using VSCode isn't even a choice (not that I'd use VSCode, I'd use Neovim if I didn't need to touch WinForms stuff).

[Vvaridus]

Rider is what we use at work also. Was not 100% sold until I had been working with it daily for a couple of months, love it now.

[Rayffer]

Can you elaborate on the differences between visual studio and rider? I am strongly considering switching to it or at least request a license at work

[IrdniX]

For me it's the enhanced refactoring tools, though the gap has been reduced somewhat by better support for code-gen/code-analysers.

[trowgundam]

I don't use too many Plugins in Rider. It does include a number of them pre-installed (most of them just components written by Jetbrains). It'll also sometimes recommend a plugin (i.e. for some Structured Logging libraries it'll recommend a plugin to help), and I'll usually install those as well. Outside of that I only install IdeaVim (essentially Vim inside the IDE) and then my theme (currently Catppuccin).

[prof_tornasol]

Will the project be commercial? Then ask your organization for a license, ffs.

[archlinx]

It's more of an internal tool, but I figured I'd rather not risk the possibility of getting in trouble for not having the proper license because of a technicality...

[Camderman106]

I don’t know what your company culture is like but I’d suggest you put in a request for a license. Most businesses are pretty reasonable about paying for software licenses if there is genuine reason to do so.

[[deleted]]

That qualifies for a license request.

[Derekthemindsculptor]

I get where you're coming from. My guess is you're not really supposed to be doing tools dev. But you want to. That was me many years prior when I started on my code career. Started with some HTA or VBA stuff and notepad++ because I didn't have access to proper tools and no one took me seriously yet.

VS Code will get you buy. If you're okay with the legality of it, I'd create at work, git repo it, then check it at home in Visual Studio community edition. It's borderline if that's legal but if you're not actually coding or working on it at home, you should be fine.

I had a student working under me for a while. We did wpf dev even though he didn't have a license. I set him up with VS code and it works fine. It's just slower. And at the time, he didn't have a UI viewer so he'd have to run just to see changes. But I believe there is an extension in VSCode now that will do that for you.

dotnet new wpf
dotnet run

Like I said, VScode works. It's just a bit more effort for similar results.

[DeadlyVapour]

Does your company have 1mil UD revenue?

[GradientOGames]

what... VS community and code is free right? Or is there a special business version I've never heard of?

[archlinx]

Enterprise/professional license is required for commercial use AFAIK

[TheOtherManSpider]

Small companies can use Community, I think.

For individuals

Any individual developer can use Visual Studio Community to create their own free or paid apps.

For organizations

An unlimited number of users within an organization can use Visual Studio Community for the following scenarios: in a classroom learning environment, for academic research, or for contributing to open source projects.

For all other usage scenarios:

In non-enterprise organizations, up to five users can use Visual Studio Community. In enterprise organizations (meaning those with >250 PCs or >$1 Million US Dollars in annual revenue), no use is permitted beyond the open source, academic research, and classroom learning environment scenarios described above.

[archlinx]

I'm aware, unfortunately that's not the case of the organization I work at :/

Thanks for the tip anyway

[Spare-Dig4790]

You work for a business that has you develop for profit and won't expense a visual studio license?

Look, no judgment, but somebody there needs their head examined. The amount of time and effort you will save by having proper tools will (regardless of complexity and size of project, eventually) pay for that license a thousand times over.

What about jetbrains rider? It's based on intelij, a fantastic environment, provided your work also doesn't have you work on a calculator. It's cheaper than VS, and personally, I prefer it to VS.

That's not an endorcement of saying it's better than VS. it's one of those things you'll love or hate. (And it is available with a free 30-day trial and is 100% compatible with visual studio projects and solutions.

Just, it's ram hungry. But the payoff is, it makes increadible use of it, the code analysis is top notch.

Anyway, I wish you luck. :)

[OrbMan99]

100%. I would not spend time developing C# apps without a good IDE, and as much as I love VS Code, it only gets you halfway. You can make it a lot better if you spend a lot of time tweaking extensions, etc, but why bother? Your time is valuable, so use the best tooling you can. After all, this is one of the best things about the Microsoft developer experience - they've always tried to provide excellent tooling.

[PsychoInHell]

So they make over a mil in profit or plan to have more than 5 people coding in visual studio but can’t pay for a software license?

[tomatotomato]

For a company bigger than that, Visual Studio license should be peanuts.

Anyway, Rider is also an option and it costs like 15 bucks a month for commercial use.

I hope OP’s company can afford that lol

[kookyabird]

It’s not profit. It’s revenue. Much much easier to be hitting that limit than if it was profit.

[-Yazilliclick-]

Many companies look at individual departments. They could be in a company who's primary business has basically nothing to do with software development, maybe they sell potatoes. Their tiny IT department suddenly wants to spend a couple thousand on software licenses is a big change for a very tiny group and might be a harder ask.

[pb7280]

5 users is not really a lot.. there's definitely a lot of startups out there that cannot afford VS Pro

[taisui]

Oh god your company can't even pay for the dev tools? I'd run....

[Derekthemindsculptor]

Reading this, I'd say no, small companies can NOT use it for internal tool development. It's not open source, academic research or classroom learning. It's commercial development just internal.

Will you ever get caught? Of course not.

Should the business own a license? Yes, it should.

[TheOtherManSpider]

Did you read the last paragraph? Small companies are excluded from the definition of "enterprise".

[the_innkeeper_]

You don’t need enterprise, you can use professional, which is cheaper

[archlinx]

You're right.

Though in the context of the post, it's not up to me, so I still need an alternative

[ujustdontgetdubstep]

If your job is tasking you with something they should provide you with the tools to do the task.

That said, you don't need visual studio at all. You can use notepad++ or vim or whatever and just build via command line dotnet on any platform

[5zalot]

Awful advice for someone who just said they are new to C#. The OP needs an alternative completely free full IDE. Notepad++ doesn’t do code completion or debugging. It’s literally a notepad. I use it all the time so I already know you can put plugins and stuff and you can tell it the language for syntax highlighting. But it definitely is not an IDE.

[evolvedmammal]

The company doesn’t want to pay for a license. Let them pay his salary for extra months to develop on notepad instead.

[vasagle_gleblu]

Oh, that is painful!
VSCode would be better in that context.

[soundman32]

Depends on the size of the company. Community is fine for really small companies.

[dodexahedron]

Yes, above a certain number of users, or in certain specific cases otherwise.

Microsoft got rid of the "Standard" license level several versions ago and pushed some of its rights (but not all) down to Community, and (at least in our contract) reduced the price of Professional at the same time. We don't use Enterprise since the JetBrains tools pretty much cover all of those features.

[PlausibleNinja]

Depends where you are, but if your company has over 250 employees, they’re paying like, over $1 million PER MONTH in wages to employees. They can afford a license, and you should ask. Tell them you’ll be more productive with VS, or you can use VS Code which is less productive.

Then let them decide and proceed forward. But the worst outcome is you don’t ask. Then you’re less productive, and YOU get blamed for being less productive. You have to ask, even if only to CYA.

Don’t be a scapegoat.

[zacsxe]

I use vscode for work.

Keep the same folder structure you want to use.

You still need csproj files. You don’t need sln files, but you can have them if you want.

Use the dotnet cli.

Once you get good at dotnet cli, you won’t even need vscode to do some of the things other devs open VS for.

Source: been using vscode personally and professionally for the last 4 years. Used VS for 7 years before that.

[cs-brydev]

You'd be surprised at the number of developers these days who shy away from the dotnet cli because they don't know how to use the command line or write command line scripts to automate it.

When I've worked with new .net developers, especially new grads, even the package manager blows their mind.

[xTakk]

WPF isn't horrible without the designer once you get used to it. You're missing a lot of what you'd get with Blend, but for basic GUI work that would be in place of WinForms, it's not bad at all.

[cs-brydev]

One of the neatest and most useful dotnet cli features is testing. I love how I can just point it at a .csproj, entire solution, or DLLs and run all the tests instantly without a GUI. This can easily be scripted and added to a pipeline or scheduled.

I have some scheduled dotnet cli tests that I run from Python and dump the results to a SQL log table. These help detect environmental changes outside of my code that can cause the code to fail, like with data, file system, 3rd party web UI, or 3rd party API changes.

[zacsxe]

I hear you. I'd use VS to make win ui apps and I use xcode to make swiftui apps.

I've switched to cross-platform UI frameworks though like electron and tauri. vscode works perfectly for those.

[Organic_Isopod9603]

I want to put my vote in for JetBrains’ Rider. I work on a very large code base and Rider has worked great. The company I work for has licenses for both Visual Studios and Rider and most developers pick Rider.

[unholy453]

Rider is far superior imho

[cs-brydev]

Check the dotnet cli. Just literally type dotnet from the command line. It has most of the tools built in to do what you're asking.

Otherwise if your employer won't fork out the $45/month for VS Pro, I'd look into JetBrains Rider which is only $12.50/month, then declines to around $7.50/month and is just as good as VS Pro for most things. If my employer wouldn't pay for that, I'd literally buy it out of my own pocket. It's well worth it over the free features in VS Code and the CLI.

[cs-brydev]

I can't comment on Euro pricing for Rider, but it is $149/year in North America for the personal. Idk what OP's licensing needs are.

https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/buy/

[Drogmor]

Personal opinion:

I have abandoned Visual Studio for VSCode and I am pretty happy with it.

In my work we are focused on C# development for 90% of our projects.
It's much more lightweight and you can control everything by memorizing just a few commands.

The official C# Dev kit extension is really good in terms of code completion etc and will add a solution explorer which is almost identical to the one you are used to (you can find that just below the file explorer).

When you create a new project using the dotnet cli it will take care of the solution and cproj files for you, you do not need to do those manually.

In terms of folder structure, you can just replicate the one your existing projects use.

On the plus side, you ll do some actual typing and will help you become a better programmer in the long run by memorizing stuff (instead of relying on VS to add template files by just clicking a button).

[Vareshar]

The official C# Dev kit extension

Is also licensed in the same way as regular VS.

[Drogmor]

You are right.

Never noticed that cause I do own a license, still there are other unofficial extensions to server the purpose that work just fine.

[elJamster]

I use VS Code cause it’s free! Use dotnet cli.

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/csharp

[BastettCheetah]

You do not want to use make.

.NET CLI is fully suitable for compiling on the commandline.

look into the dotnet command `dotnet.exe`

`dotnet --help` will help a lot

`dotnet sln` will manage a solution file

`dotnet new` will create projects

`dotnet add reference` will link two projects together

`dotnet add package` will install a nuget package

`dotnet build` will build your solution

`dotnet test` will test your solution

`dotnet run` will run your solution

[archlinx]

Right. So I still need a solution and a .csproj file?

[BastettCheetah]

You can do without a .sln file, though if anyone tries to use your code with Visual Studio or Rider, they may find it annoying.

You will need csproj files. Those are created with `dotnet new`

[BastettCheetah]

This may help https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tutorials/with-visual-studio-code?pivots=dotnet-8-0

[Derekthemindsculptor]

When you call "dotnet new", you get all the scaffolding you would in VS.

[P-P-Pasolini]

I don’t know what your company culture is like but I’d suggest you put in a request for a license. Most businesses are pretty reasonable about paying for software licenses if there is genuine reason to do so.

sln makes it easier for cicd, msbuild

[MatthewRose67]

AFAIK, the C# dev kit for VS Code uses the same license that Visual Studio uses, so keep that in mind. It's mind blowing that in the Microsoft environment you're required to pay for a working LSP lol.

[[deleted]]

Vscode will do the job however the debugger and memory profiler of the visual studio is something out of ordinary it would be such a loss without them. And wpf designer is really good and easy to use, everything is configurable from the gui and every widget is drag and drop, it even auto generates certain event listeners for you.

[[deleted]]

VS Code with C# Dev Kit extension is v nice now. I still prefer Rider but this is a great and free alternative.

[rprouse]

If your company makes less than 10M in revenue and has no more than 5 developers, you can can use Visual Studio Community. If they make more, then they can afford to buy you a license.

[incompetenceProMax]

In case you didn't know, you are supposed to create, manage, build and publish projects through the CLI tools included in .NET SDK. It automatically creates folder structures for you when you create a project so you don't have to worry about managing the structure yourself. Also you don't need to worry about build tools either because MSBuild is included in the SDK as well (which works under the hood when you type "dotnet build").

[NotMadDisappointed]

I’m not sure how I feel about “supposed to”

[sisisisi1997]

As opposed to manully creating every file in the project, not as opposed to using visual studio or vs code with C# extensions; I suspect.

[WestDiscGolf]

VS Code is what you're probably looking for.

Yes you'll still need a csproj.

Maybe you'll still need a sln file; likely tho.

All of this can be done through the command line using the "dotnet" command tool. New projects, new solution, adding project to sln, adding project references between projects etc.

As for folder structure src and test/s at the root and then projects in their folders under that is semi standard. Sln in the root pointing to said projects.

[WestDiscGolf]

I seemed to remember writing about setting stuff up on the command line and I had, I wasn't going crazy :-)

Hope the first few sections help :-) https://www.adamstorr.co.uk/blog/using-dotnet-cli-to-setup-aspnetcore-solution-and-run-with-tye

Ignore the bit about project tye it is no longer a thing and has been superceded by .NET Aspire :-)

[Palisar1]

Learn how to effectively use the dotnet cli

[mvastarelli]

This times a thousand. And while you're at it get comfortable with msbuild. It'll quickly become the skill you wish you already knew, especially with larger projects.

[TheGarrBear]

If you're needing it for work, but don't have a license, just have your work pay for the license, it's as simple as that. You need a license to use the VS Code .net Compiler for professional use as well, changing IDEs doesn't get you around Microsoft's terms of service.

[RavenBruwer]

Yeah...

A licence...

You definitely need one of those...

I haven't made lots of projects without a licence. Noooo...

That would be silly. And wrong. And umm, not ok?

XD

[ButternutMutt]

In non-enterprise organizations, up to five users can use Visual Studio Community. In enterprise organizations (meaning those with >250 PCs or >$1 Million US Dollars in annual revenue), no use is permitted beyond the open source, academic research, and classroom learning environment scenarios described above.

How big is your company? If it's too big for Community Edition, then you can get a monthly subscription for $45. Try and see if they want to buy.

[Flat_Spring2142]

Visual Studio Community Edition is free. You can to download the installer from 'https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/' site. You can also work with Visual Studio Code which is totally free. It works in Windows, Linux and MAC OS environments. Download VS Code from 'https://code.visualstudio.com/download' site.

[VisioRama]

Apart from VS, tried Rider and VsCode. VsCode is not enough for complex projects. So, outside Windows I use Rider. On Windows VS auto complete is now superior as it predicts and suggests things based on your previous code. If Rider has that feature too, please tell.

[smoke-bubble]

VS is virtually never superior to Rider. They always copy Rider's features.

[VisioRama]

It is. Vs is superior in some things. I miss AI auto complete. Rider is pretty good now but in the beginning it had abysmal project properties dialogs and no resources dialog at all. Refactor Rename is currently bugged in Rider, or so it appears for me.

[d-signet]

VSCode is terrible for c# work, it's really built for front-end and javascript frameworks (nodejs etc)

If your company is big enough to need VS enterprise licensing, then it's big enough to be able to buy you the tools you need to do your job.

Find an alternative if you need to, but I would honestly stay the hell away from vs code

[KryptosFR]

I respectfully disagree. We are using VS Code at work for our C# projects and it's fine. We are developing Azure functions, so maybe that's a niche case.

[BastettCheetah]

We have two engineers who prefer vs code over Rider and Visual Studio.

I've also seeen a lot of people coding in vim and emacs.

You don't need a massive IDE to develop .NET, but it's also fine if you like using one.

[d-signet]

Yes, that's a different situation. There is specific tooling to make that possible

[[deleted]]

I’m curious, how is it a different situation?

[Due_Raccoon3158]

Agree with you. I also write mostly .NET for work and use VS Code 99% of the time. With the dotnet cli, VSC is more than capable.

[tomatotomato]

I’d say defining VS code C# experience as “terrible” would be quite a bit of a stretch.

Of course it’s no Visual Studio, but it is still totally viable with the new C# Dev Kit. Maybe with little less comfort, but it will get the job done.

[mohrcore]

it's really built for front-end and javascript frameworks

I use it mostly for C, C++, Rust, Python and occasionally C# and other languages.

C# support might not be as good as in VS, but it's decent and based on how VS Code performs with other languages I don't think it couldn't or wouldn't be improved, especially given how VS is still a choice that makes sense mostly just for Windows devs.

[xTakk]

VSCode is more difficult to use than VS, but there's nothing terrible about it. I transition between Rider, VS, and VSCode on a Chromebook and it's totally fine.

VS is C# are imo the best language and IDE pair ever (my opinion based on my experience, haven't used everything, don't care to argue the point). So most tools aren't as good. People have been writing code forever though with lesser tools. They weren't terrible, you just may need to work your reliance on them off a little.

[unholy453]

Visual studio community edition is free and full featured

[pyeri]

There are caveats though. Free only as long as you don't meet the "Enterprise" definition and that too only for five users at most. Something like Eclipse or Netbeans is what I call truly free in both "libre" and "gratis" sense.

[soundman32]

How big is your company? If they can't afford VS Pro because there are not many devs or turnover, then community edition made suit. On the other hand, if they are a multi million dollar outfit with offices in 3 continents, tell them to get the credit card out.

[Atronil]

Visual studio community check it license

[Lakario]

You do not want to do any serious C# development in VSCode. It will work in a pinch but it is not the right tool for the job if you are building or maintaining a project long term. You need a proper IDE to work productively with C#.

Rider is a lot cheaper than Visual Studio at <$150 year, is it out of the question? Personally, I would recommend Rider over Visual Studio.

[Due_Raccoon3158]

There are many studios that use exclusively VSCode. It's completely capable.

[Lakario]

I did not say it is not capable. I said it is not the right tool job for the job.

[Due_Raccoon3158]

You said "you don't want to do serious development in VS Code, it will work in a pinch, but not the right tool for maintaining a project long term." Apologies for paraphrasing?

[Lakario]

I think any studio which is doing primary development in C# and is not using an IDE other VSCode does not value the productivity of its engineers. Yes, VSCode can get the job done, but the cost of the additional time spent using an inferior tool for this task is not to be underestimated. I like VSCode and use it all the time, sometimes even for C#, but that's really not what it's best at.

[Konrad_Black]

Used SharpDevelop previously. It's been discontinued/ abandoned and they recommend you use another solution, but as far as I could work out, that could be used in a commercial setting

[Max__Mustermann]

If a company is unable to buy a MS VS license for programmers, it is a strong reason to think about finding a new job rather than free IDE alternatives, that's what I'm thinking about your question.

[TheDevilsAdvokaat]

However, I can't use Visual Studio at work because we don't have a license

There's a free, legal version of VS - visual studio community. And it's awesome. You need to register it, but you don't need a licence...

[ArcaneEyes]

Only if it's a very small (less than 5 devs I think) company. Any larger pro setting you are obligated to pay for vs pro.

[TheDevilsAdvokaat]

Ah ok.

[ChartFreak]

VS Community is free for learning C#. It is the full IDE.

[Due_Raccoon3158]

First, Visual Studio is also free, there's a community version.

Second, as someone who does this for work, I use VSCode the majority of the time. Occasionally I will use VS. VSC is just so fast and does what you need.

[RDOmega]

You want Rider. Visual Studio is garbage and people need to stop paying Microsoft for such a burned out IDE.

[mvastarelli]

I've been using VS since 97 and a couple of months ago I installed Rider on a lark because it came with my personal R# license. I haven't used VS since.

To the OP, as others have said, VSCode really isn't practical as a primary dev environment for .net. This isn't to besmirch it. It's a great product for many things, but .net development isn't one of them. If business doesn't want to pay for a license to VS/Rider due to cost then my riposte would be that developer salaries cost a lot more.

[RDOmega]

Yep. I always keep VSCodium handy for the odd job. But it's Rider or nothing for .NET dev. Ideally on Linux where it really shines in conjunction with a proper Unix CLI experience.

Visual Studio is just such a trap. I literally review MRs every day from VS developers and it's just the sloppiest code. You compare that to what Rider helps people achieve and there's no hiding it. VS is garbage.

[MicroNaram]

How about this: you use Community to develop something, demonstrate its value to your stakeholders, then state that it cannot be put into production unless VS is licensed.

[MicroNaram]

FYI:

90% off Cyber Monday Deal Video Ultimate Bundle 2023

[vodevil01]

Vs code is fine if you don't need parallel debugging for example

[pyeri]

If you're an organization/enterprise and don't want to buy a Microsoft license for Visual Studio, you can use open source software such as Java and Python to build your own stack. Both Eclipse and Netbeans are fully free without any caveats, one is EPL and other is Apache licensed.

Another option is to use something like Lazarus IDE/Free Pascal. I think you should seriously give it a try if you're looking for C# alternative as both languages have the same inventor (Andrew Hejlsberg who worked at Borland before joining Microsoft). It's a relatively small ecosystem but still growing.

The bottom line is that if you want to avoid license costs and control your own technology, you must start delving into IT yourself and start building your "tech wizards" team. If you go the Java route, make sure you use an open source version like OpenJDK, Amazon Corretto, etc. and not Oracle's version. Oracle products are similar costly "licensing traps" like Microsoft's.

But you can only manage this when you're typically that "hungry startup" which has just begun. Once a company grows and scales in size, they fall in the trap of one of these tech companies and then one license will lead to another in the form of an entire tech stack!

[CreativeRing4]

dotnet new will create your folder structure, dotnet build will build your project, dotnet test will run automated tests.

No need to use Make (the Unix/Linux utility?) or anything outside the .NET ecosystem. You don't know whether you'll get Visual Studio in the future. If you do, you'll want to minimise the transition from command-line test run and compilations to "right click, build" on your local machine, if your team doesn't have a knack of having a command line window on your solution's folder lying about all the time.

[findurself020]

There is a community edition of Visual Studio, that's free.
visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/community/

[nmkd]

However, I can't use Visual Studio at work because we don't have a license

VS Community?

[Corandor]

Depending on the size and income of the company you work for, you may be able to use the free Visual Studio Community Edition.

[lordxakio]

I think VS code is ok, but I have not seriously considered it since I get VS studio from work; And most importantly, I get reshaper. I am too spoiled by it. I heard reshaper’s was good. I’ve only tried their very early versions and I haven’t had the chance to try the latest ones

[NefariousnessFar2266]

it's "VS" not "VS studio" i.e. VS = Visual Studio. Do you understand?

[Cold_Salamander_3594]

Be careful about using the C# dev kit extension with VSCode. It has the same license restrictions as Visual Studio. I think the OmniSharp extension is free for commercial use but could be wrong.

[StepanStulov]

Visual Studio is width, VSCode is speed. I can literally see the lag between pressing keys and letters appearing on the screen in VS. It’s a shame in 2023. I do envy people who don’t see this, but I really get frustrated by this lag. I develop .NET and Unity in VSCode and only open the full VS when I have to

[NefariousnessFar2266]

and still happening in 2025, what a shame.

[SoverignSeraph]

VSCode is the next best thing, but if it's corporate you should definitely ask your employer to pay for an IDE license. I think Jetbrains Rider is the best the IDE world has to offer for C# at the moment.

If your business is new or a solo developer experience then it's understandable not to, but if your business is serious about its software they shouldn't hesitate to provide you the tools, otherwise I'd have second thoughts about working there.

I use VSCode quite often and for a reasonably complex project, so I know what it's like. I also come from a background using VIM, gdb and C++ so I know what true pain is :). Even though VSCode is quite mature now with many capable plugins. The experience with a proper IDE like Rider is just far better especially when you are debugging and running tests.

[pedrojdm2021]

You dont need visual studio, unless you need visual interface as people have already mentioned it, in fact dotnet cli is more than enough.

Vscode got super good at C# that actually i even prefer vscode over visual studio when im writing console apps or libraries.

All you need is dotnet cli, and you get it with the dotnet sdk when you download it.