Microsoft Visual Studio Code vs. Overleaf

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Visual Studio Code
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft offers Visual Studio Code, a text editor that supports code editing, debugging, IntelliSense syntax highlighting, and other features.
$0
Overleaf
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
Overleaf is a collaborative writing and publishing system designed to make the process of producing academic papers much quicker for both authors and publishers, from Writelatex Limited in London.N/A
Pricing
Microsoft Visual Studio CodeOverleaf
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Visual Studio CodeOverleaf
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Visual Studio CodeOverleaf
Best Alternatives
Microsoft Visual Studio CodeOverleaf
Small Businesses
BBEdit
BBEdit
Score 9.9 out of 10
BBEdit
BBEdit
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Vim
Vim
Score 9.3 out of 10
Vim
Vim
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Vim
Vim
Score 9.3 out of 10
Vim
Vim
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft Visual Studio CodeOverleaf
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(91 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.4
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(8 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.7
(23 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft Visual Studio CodeOverleaf
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
Microsoft Visual Studio Code is highly recommended for the development of systems and / or complex applications entrusted to work teams under a specific methodology, and its use is also recommended for the maintenance of previously developed applications.
It is not recommended as a learning environment for developers with little experience as the learning curve would be too high
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Digital Science
Overleaf is good to use in a lot of scenarios where something is to be written as a group. However, I believe that it is only good up to a certain amount of people working on the document at once. While I am unsure when it becomes too much, I got no doubt that there is a limit for when it is that good. Though normally, our group size of up to six people has been fine to work with in Overleaf.
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Pros
Microsoft
  • Very accessible -- it's compatible with all platforms and environments, free to install, and fast to open
  • Strong native support for many languages, and very strong extensibility to provide advanced language features
  • Git integration is top-notch, often displaying a better history, diff, and merge interface that is otherwise available in version control systems
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Digital Science
  • Easy to get started and compile documents
  • Collaborative scientific writing
  • Latex documentation
  • Built in templates
  • Comments and chat features
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Cons
Microsoft
  • Lack of button bar like ones found in Visual Studio.
  • Lack of integrated help that could link to YouTube, Channel 9, or other Microsoft videos on how to learn about features.
  • Integration with Team Foundation Server.
  • Would like to see it having some sort of integration into a Web API testing harness.
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Digital Science
  • IEEE benefits were removed
  • Commenting system could be better
  • Project organization could be better
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
Solid tool that provides everything you need to develop most types of applications. The only reason not a 10 is that if you are doing large distributed teams on Enterprise level, Professional does provide more tools to support that and would be worth the cost.
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Digital Science
No answers on this topic
Usability
Microsoft
Looking at our current implementation, Microsoft Visual Studio Code is perfect for writing code and performing debug operations. Integration with SVN repository is easy and changes can be tracked effectively. Microsoft Visual Studio Code supports developers to write code productively using syntax check and easy customization. Microsoft Visual Studio Code also provides support for IntelliSense which prompts suggestions for code completion. It is easy to step through code using interactive debugger to inspect the root cause of error quickly.
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Digital Science
It's easy to use for a variety of skill levels. It has most features you could want from an text editor and LaTeX editor. Collaboration is easy for all skill levels including for first time users. The UI is pleasant enough and the website is quick to load. All the packages you need are available.
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Support Rating
Microsoft
Active development means filing a bug on the GitHub repo typically gets you a response within 4 days. There are plugins for almost everything you need, whether it be linting, Vim emulation, even language servers (which I use to code in Scala). There is well-maintained official documentation. The only thing missing is forums. The closest thing is GitHub issues, which typically has the answers but is hard to sift through -- there are currently 78k issues.
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Digital Science
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
[Microsoft] Visual Studio Code beats the competition due to its extensibility. Their robust extensions architecture combined with the plethora of mostly free extensions written by the community can't be beaten. The fact that this tool itself is provided by a world-recognized company, Microsoft, free of charge is phenomenal. The goodwill garnered by them is immeasurable. Other tools I've used were missing features or were just too rigid, too complicated, or too unsophisticated for my liking. The fact that VS Code is easy to mold to my will with the right extensions seals the deal.
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Digital Science
Alongside Overleaf, we have tried using Microsoft Word and Google Docs to write reports. While they all let you write in the same document at once, Overleaf just works better for us. Microsoft Word locks the paragraph someone else is working on to avoid others messing with it before the original writer is done. However, it is often slow to open those paragraphs up for others to edit. Google Docs is the hardest one of them to make a good layout on, though with the app, it can be good for proofreading on the go.
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Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • Positive impact on minimizing time wasted by employees with software installation and setup
  • Positive impact on reducing spend on software licensing
  • Positive impact on minimizing time used to manage different applications for different purposes - this performs all of the functions we need in basic coding
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Digital Science
  • Easier to collaborate with team members
  • Easy reviewing of papers by colleagues
  • Simple to use latex publishing which promotes the use of it
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ScreenShots