There are 2 major differences.

  1. Technical
  2. Licensing

Technical, there are 3 major differences:

First and foremost, Community doesn't have TFS support.
You'll just have to use git (arguable whether this constitutes a disadvantage or whether this actually is a good thing).
Note: This is what MS wrote. Actually, you can check-in&out with TFS as normal, if you have a TFS server in the network. You just cannot use Visual Studio as TFS SERVER.

Second, VS Community is severely limited in its testing capability.
Only unit tests. No Performance tests, no load tests, no performance profiling.

Third, VS Community's ability to create Virtual Environments has been severely cut.

On the other hand, syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, Step-Through debugging, GoTo-Definition, Git-Integration and Build/Publish are really all the features I need, and I guess that applies to a lot of developers.

For all other things, there are tools that do the same job faster, better and cheaper.

If you, like me, anyway use git, do unit testing with NUnit, and use Java-Tools to do Load-Testing on Linux plus TeamCity for CI, VS Community is more than sufficient, technically speaking.

Licensing:

A) If you're an individual developer (no enterprise, no organization), no difference (AFAIK), you can use CommunityEdition like you'd use the paid edition (as long as you don't do subcontracting)
B) You can use CommunityEdition freely for OpenSource (OSI) projects
C) If you're an educational insitution, you can use CommunityEdition freely (for education/classroom use)
D) If you're an enterprise with 250 PCs or users or more than one million US dollars in revenue (including subsidiaries), you are NOT ALLOWED to use CommunityEdition.
E) If you're not an enterprise as defined above, and don't do OSI or education, but are an "enterprise"/organization, with 5 or less concurrent (VS) developers, you can use VS Community freely (but only if you're the owner of the software and sell it, not if you're a subcontractor creating software for a larger enterprise, software which in the end the enterprise will own), otherwise you need a paid edition.

The above does not consitute legal advice.
See also:
https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/262916/understanding-visual-studio-community-edition-license

Answer from Stefan Steiger on Stack Overflow
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What's the difference between Visual Studio Community and other, paid versions? - Stack Overflow
What's missing in Visual Studio Community 2015? They say it's full-featured and free, but if that's the case, then why do/will they still sell Visual Studio Ultimate 2015 or Visual Studio Enterpris... More on stackoverflow.com
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Question about the Visual Studio Community
You need to make sure the component is installed. Modify the Visual Studio installation to include ASP.NET: Click Start > Type Visual > Launch Visual Studio Installer > Click Modify > Check the box for ASP.NET and web development > Click Modify at the bottom right corner, More on reddit.com
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September 26, 2025
Is Visual Studio 2017 community version still available?
I believe you can find older versions here More on reddit.com
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14
October 17, 2023
Which is better: Visual Studio or Visual Studio Community?
Visual Studio Community is the free edition of Visual Studio. If you’ve not paid for a licence, or on a trial, you’re using Visual Studio Community. Go to Help > About and it will show you licensing information. More info on the different editions: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/compare/ More on reddit.com
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Top answer
1 of 4
276

There are 2 major differences.

  1. Technical
  2. Licensing

Technical, there are 3 major differences:

First and foremost, Community doesn't have TFS support.
You'll just have to use git (arguable whether this constitutes a disadvantage or whether this actually is a good thing).
Note: This is what MS wrote. Actually, you can check-in&out with TFS as normal, if you have a TFS server in the network. You just cannot use Visual Studio as TFS SERVER.

Second, VS Community is severely limited in its testing capability.
Only unit tests. No Performance tests, no load tests, no performance profiling.

Third, VS Community's ability to create Virtual Environments has been severely cut.

On the other hand, syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, Step-Through debugging, GoTo-Definition, Git-Integration and Build/Publish are really all the features I need, and I guess that applies to a lot of developers.

For all other things, there are tools that do the same job faster, better and cheaper.

If you, like me, anyway use git, do unit testing with NUnit, and use Java-Tools to do Load-Testing on Linux plus TeamCity for CI, VS Community is more than sufficient, technically speaking.

Licensing:

A) If you're an individual developer (no enterprise, no organization), no difference (AFAIK), you can use CommunityEdition like you'd use the paid edition (as long as you don't do subcontracting)
B) You can use CommunityEdition freely for OpenSource (OSI) projects
C) If you're an educational insitution, you can use CommunityEdition freely (for education/classroom use)
D) If you're an enterprise with 250 PCs or users or more than one million US dollars in revenue (including subsidiaries), you are NOT ALLOWED to use CommunityEdition.
E) If you're not an enterprise as defined above, and don't do OSI or education, but are an "enterprise"/organization, with 5 or less concurrent (VS) developers, you can use VS Community freely (but only if you're the owner of the software and sell it, not if you're a subcontractor creating software for a larger enterprise, software which in the end the enterprise will own), otherwise you need a paid edition.

The above does not consitute legal advice.
See also:
https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/262916/understanding-visual-studio-community-edition-license

2 of 4
108

Check the following: https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/compare/ Visual studio community is free version for students and other academics, individual developers, open-source projects, and small non-enterprise teams (see "Usage" section at bottom of linked page). While VSUltimate is for companies. You also get more things with paid versions!

There are 2 major differences.

  1. Technical
  2. Licensing

Technical, there are 3 major differences:

First and foremost, Community doesn't have TFS support.
You'll just have to use git (arguable whether this constitutes a disadvantage or whether this actually is a good thing).
Note: This is what MS wrote. Actually, you can check-in&out with TFS as normal, if you have a TFS server in the network. You just cannot use Visual Studio as TFS SERVER.

Second, VS Community is severely limited in its testing capability.
Only unit tests. No Performance tests, no load tests, no performance profiling.

Third, VS Community's ability to create Virtual Environments has been severely cut.

On the other hand, syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, Step-Through debugging, GoTo-Definition, Git-Integration and Build/Publish are really all the features I need, and I guess that applies to a lot of developers.

For all other things, there are tools that do the same job faster, better and cheaper.

If you, like me, anyway use git, do unit testing with NUnit, and use Java-Tools to do Load-Testing on Linux plus TeamCity for CI, VS Community is more than sufficient, technically speaking.

Licensing:

A) If you're an individual developer (no enterprise, no organization), no difference (AFAIK), you can use CommunityEdition like you'd use the paid edition (as long as you don't do subcontracting)
B) You can use CommunityEdition freely for OpenSource (OSI) projects
C) If you're an educational insitution, you can use CommunityEdition freely (for education/classroom use)
D) If you're an enterprise with 250 PCs or users or more than one million US dollars in revenue (including subsidiaries), you are NOT ALLOWED to use CommunityEdition.
E) If you're not an enterprise as defined above, and don't do OSI or education, but are an "enterprise"/organization, with 5 or less concurrent (VS) developers, you can use VS Community freely (but only if you're the owner of the software and sell it, not if you're a subcontractor creating software for a larger enterprise, software which in the end the enterprise will own), otherwise you need a paid edition.

The above does not consitute legal advice.
See also:
https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/262916/understanding-visual-studio-community-edition-license

Answer from Stefan Steiger on Stack Overflow
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Microsoft Store
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Visual Studio Community - Download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store
November 12, 2025 - Visual Studio Community is a free, extensible, AI-integrated IDE with built-in designer, editor, debugger, profiler, and Git tools for creating modern applications. Build for Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, the web, cloud services, and games while ...
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Free Developer Software & Services - Visual Studio
1 week ago - Free offers: Visual Studio Community, Visual Studio Code, VSTS, and Dev Essentials.
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Visual Studio - Wikipedia
2 days ago - It serves as the central location for posting information about extensions to Visual Studio. Community developers as well as commercial developers can upload information about their extensions to Visual Studio .NET 2002 through Visual Studio 2010. Users of the site can rate and review the extensions to help assess the quality of extensions being posted.
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Extend Visual Studio: Top Extensions, Plugins, and Add Ons
2 weeks ago - Personalize your Visual Studio experience today by downloading extensions. Browse through thousands of extensions available in the Marketplace to find the tools you need. You can also publish your own extensions to the Marketplace. ... Can’t find the extension you need? Have an awesome extension idea? You can start building your own extensions today! There is a sea of information available on the Microsoft Docs page and the online Gitter community ...
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r/VisualStudio on Reddit: Is Visual Studio 2017 community version still available?
October 17, 2023 -

I am applying to this company and I'm going to have a technical exam. They told me about the tools that we are going to use (Visual Studio 2017), but I cant find the Visual Studio 2017 Community Version. I have the 2022 community version already installed in my device.

Are there any other 2017 versions that are free to use?

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Visual Studio Older Downloads - 2019, 2017, 2015
1 week ago - Download previous versions of Visual Studio Community, Professional, and Enterprise softwares. Sign into your Visual Studio (MSDN) subscription here.
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Microsoft Visual Studio Community
Microsoft Visual Studio Community is a free IDE used for writing computer programs, websites, web apps and web services.
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Download Visual Studio Code - Mac, Linux, Windows
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Visual Studio 2026 Insiders - Faster, smarter IDE
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Visual studio community is free , open source or paid ...
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Visual Studio Pricing: Compare Subscription Plans & Costs
1 week ago - Yes, but we recommend using our latest Visual Studio instead. Have you tried the free Visual Studio Community?