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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how can I download the Visual Studio 2022 community version?
https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vs_community.exe More on reddit.com
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🌐 r/VisualStudio
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September 1, 2022
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!

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/visualstudio › how can i download the visual studio 2022 community version?
r/VisualStudio on Reddit: how can I download the Visual Studio 2022 community version?
4 weeks ago -

Can anyone help me with how to download the Visual Studio 2022 Community version? I searched everywhere on the Microsoft website. There are only the Enterprise and Professional editions available for download. I need it for my university assignment. Can anyone help me?

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Visual Studio - Wikipedia
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forums.unrealengine.com › general › feedback & requests
Locked out of using UE5 because Visual Studio 2022 Community is not available anymore - Feedback & Requests - Epic Developer Community Forums
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news.ycombinator.com › item
Important info: Q: Who can use Visual Studio Community? A: Here’s how individual... | Hacker News
November 23, 2014 - Q: Who can use Visual Studio Community? A: Here’s how individual developers can use Visual Studio Community: Any individual developer can use Visual Studio Community to create their own free or paid apps · Here’s how Visual Studio Community can be used in organizations: An unlimited number ...
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apps.microsoft.com › detail › xpdcfjdklzjlp8
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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quora.com › Is-Visual-Studio-community-worth-using-it
Is Visual Studio community worth using it? - Quora
Answer (1 of 5): Absolutely if you are doing C++ or .NET development. If you are primarily doing development in languages that aren’t frequently used in a Microsoft environment (Java, Swift, Go, Python, Objective-C), there may be better choices. If, however, you are doing C++ or .NET ...
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Visual Studio: IDE and Code Editor for Software Development
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July 22, 2025 - So Actually I am following the udemy course: https://www.udemy.com/course/unrealcourse/?couponCode=PMNVD2025 i.e. Unreal Engine 5 C++ Developer: Learn C++ & Make Video Games. The main issue I am facing is this: As instructed in the course first time I go to VS Code & then Terminal > Run Build ...