NetBeans vs. Microsoft Visual Studio

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
NetBeans
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
NetBeans is a free and open source platform and integrated development environment (IDE).N/A
Visual Studio
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Visual Studio (now in the 2022 edition) is a 64-bit IDE that makes it easier to work with bigger projects and complex workloads, boasting a fluid and responsive experience for users. The IDE features IntelliCode, its automatic code completion tools that understand code context and that can complete up to a whole line at once to drive accurate and confident coding.
$45
per month
Pricing
NetBeansMicrosoft Visual Studio
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Professional
$45.00
per month
Enterprise
$250.00
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
NetBeansVisual Studio
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
NetBeansMicrosoft Visual Studio
Considered Both Products
NetBeans
Chose NetBeans
It works very smoothly as compared to other tools . The problem of restarting and reimporting the projects is not in the netbeans IDE . The front end development features are good . Netbeans connector is one of the best thing which enables us to deeply integrate netbeans IDE …
Chose NetBeans
I would say NetBeans only shines when it comes to smaller projects. I prefer using Eclipse and Intellij over NetBeans when it comes to developing larger projects.
Chose NetBeans
Netbeans is great as a stand-alone java ide and for compiling your java code. The platform provides easy access to better make use of your repos. Between the other ide, NetBeans is easier for us to integrate with android SDK. The only problem is the UI and for all other code …
Chose NetBeans
IBM Rational Application Developer and IntelliJ IDEA are great with hell lot of features packed into the product and are subscription based. However, most of the features they were providing were moot from my organization's business perspective and the cost was expensive. …
Chose NetBeans
It is supported primarily by Oracle and is free. This is a very important plus. Also, many things come embedded. You don't have to worry about adding library or framework. Finally, one of my favorite features is you can design the interface with drag and drop. This feature is …
Chose NetBeans
NetBeans is open source and is freely available to use making it economical compared to Visual Studio IDE. It is fast compared to Visual Studio IDE. More Diversified Libraries are available with NetBeans to work on as compared to the Eclipse IDE. It can be used even by novices …
Chose NetBeans
IntelliJ IDEA is more feature-rich and has professional support available, but comes with increased licensing costs.
Eclipse is widely used, and some of our developers still prefer Eclipse over NetBeans. However, developers spend more time working around IDE bugs when using …
Chose NetBeans
The biggest pro of NetBeans for us is that it is free and open-source, and this is why we decided to go with it over other similar products.
Chose NetBeans
Net beans is way better editor IDE than any other software. It is more advanced and more stable. The only problem with net beans is it consumes more resources of laptop / computer than any other editor. Sublime also supports multiple languages like NetBeans but it has a lot …
Chose NetBeans
Formatting becomes easy. File navigation becomes easy. Can compile code in IDE itself.
Chose NetBeans
All above mentioned is good for web development and Netbeans is an IDE which can do a lot more than normal text editors. File navigation is also easy in Netbeans.
Chose NetBeans
NetBeans holds its own in comparison to other IDEs. Versus IntelliJ and Eclipse, it's a matter of preference and familiarity.
Chose NetBeans
NetBeans is free, open source and offers a lot of open source plugins. If you don't have money to invest in a proprietary IDE, you can use NetBeans as the main IDE. Also, it's backed up by a great community and Apache so you know that it will receive upgrades and updates to …
Chose NetBeans
NetBeans goes with other IDE's in market like Eclipse, Rational Application Development and more.

I prefer NetBeans since it's a lighter version than RAD and Eclipse for building/developing Java and J2EE applications. It also has dynamic support for JavaScript, HTML, PHP.
Chose NetBeans
I have been using NetBeans for many years and I am very comfortable with it. NetBeans is a Java IDE and for different languages ​​such as PHP, Javascript, JavaFX, C / C ++, etc. unlike Eclipse, which is more useful only for Java. NetBeans helps the developer to develop their …
Chose NetBeans
It provides way to go to object or method declaration from its instance or next occurrence of object anywhere in the code. Also, it bundles difference checking and code version repos like svn, git and mercury. It almost have everything you need in development of your software.
Chose NetBeans
Easy to use. Not really proprietary to a single vendor or language.
Chose NetBeans
Netbeans has a larger number of plugins than Eclipse does which makes development easier. It provides a lot of support for enterprise Java based applications. It has a powerful user interface which makes it easier to navigate through the software. It provides support for the …
Chose NetBeans
Both are very good IDE's especially for Java. Both have great integrations. I chose NetBeans because of the better integration with Glassfish.
Chose NetBeans
NetBeans is easier to use. It has a simpler UI and it's more similar with other IDEs than Eclipse. I never liked Eclipse's workspace concept, with NetBeans you just have projects. Overall I would say using NetBeans requires less learning since it's UI is more logical and you …
Chose NetBeans

I originally began coding with Eclipse, but found debugging to be difficult to implement; switched to NetBeans and never really looked back. When coding for specific projects (for instance Android or a Java class ) Eclipse seems to have a better foothold on integration of …

Visual Studio
Chose Visual Studio
It has free community version which make it to use vastly and no budget needed. Good UI to work on and Add-on we can use add and use what ever we need. The extensions that helps to use it.
Chose Visual Studio
For performance and community reach, Microsoft Visual Studio is by far the best. It's the most used and allows us to be efficient and productive without being guinea pigs and having to test new, potentially breaking features.
Chose Visual Studio
A few years ago, Microsoft Visual Studio felt behind Rider in many features, these days, I'd say they go hand in hand.
Chose Visual Studio
I like that you don't have to install a heap of plugins before you can start coding as I am never sure which plugins are ok/safe/standard. We have had issues with painful licensing in some other products.
Chose Visual Studio
Microsoft Visual Studio works well with the Windows operating system an there is less need to install other third party packages to work with the above IDE's. You don't need to install a separate C compiler.
Chose Visual Studio
VS is intuitive and easy to understand. The compiling, notes, debugging, and testing make it easy to build your app. With the integrated repository, it makes it a breeze to stage and commit/update your files. You don't have to go to the OS folders to do it.
Chose Visual Studio
Eclipse is primarily used for Java development, and Android Studio is used for Android app development. Since our work is mainly focused on .NET applications, we use Microsoft Visual Studio to develop our software solutions. Microsoft Visual Studio IDE is way above the rest of …
Chose Visual Studio
Compared with Delphi it is night and day, but that is perhaps because my experience was coming from a Microsoft coding environment to having to setup a development machine for Delphi coding.

What made the alternative such a difficult process was having to download and install …
Chose Visual Studio
I have not developed with other products since a lot of years because this is the official development application in our company. I think other applications could be similar as I was developing in other but this was a lot of years ago, so it is not a good question to answer.
Chose Visual Studio
Much superior integrations, better UI, and overall development experience. Debugging and testing in other tools was a frustrating experience, but proved much more satisfying in Visual Studio.
Chose Visual Studio
Eclipse is also very good but it's more suitable for Java development. Our requirement is more towards .Net, C# and hence Microsoft Visual Studio works well for us. If your primary requirement is Java and cross platform, Eclipse works well. But our specific requirement makes …
Chose Visual Studio
For beginners, the other tools are easier to set up and run. It is also entirely customizable, but Visual Studio Code has more plugins that allow you to streamline your work.
Chose Visual Studio
MATLAB and QT are way more different than Visual Studio. Despite of being famous as per their IDE environment, they would not stand much comparison with VS Visual Studio IDEs. because, MATLAB and QT are limited edition and feature related Visual Studio IDEs, and they stick to …
Chose Visual Studio
We choose Visual Studio IDE because it is easier to set up with C# and more stable. Each time we use Eclipse to make a program, we had bad behavior. Maybe that was our computer setup but we finally go with something more stable and more useful for our company.
Chose Visual Studio
Visual Studio is somewhat different from LiveCode. LiveCode is a coding platform that is unique and implemented most often by colleges, universities, and other academic institutions. It is more of a coding language than a team-collaboration resource. However, the LiveCode …
Chose Visual Studio
It contains everything a developers wants--starting from a basic terminal to millions of extensions. It's the best solution for developers.
Chose Visual Studio
I personally feel Visual Studio IDE has [a] better interface and [is more] user friendly than other IDEs. It has better code maintainability and intellisense. Its inbuilt team foundation server help coders to check on their code then and go. Better nugget package management, …
Chose Visual Studio
It's a well [maintained], mature IDE, which has the benefit of being a [software] which only the most skilled developers works on, instead of being open source. It has a lot of very useful features, which most free IDE-s don't. Also, it has many options from commercial …
Chose Visual Studio
Some of the editors are suitable for a particular programming language . For example pyCharm is suited for Python .
Visual Studio has support for many languages and Visual Studio is comparatively light weight from most of the IDE . The ability to get extensions and use them is …
Chose Visual Studio
Eclipse, PyCharm, Netbeans I have used during my internship for smaller applications but to have a full end-to-end application with ease to connect to database and deployment I believe Visual Studio is way better than other available IDE in this space.
Although your options get …
Chose Visual Studio
I can't compare the NetBeans or PhpStorm with Visual Studio IDE due to entirely different use. All software development IDEs holds their importance, but Visual Studio IDE is the best among its competitors--the IntelliSense and standardization of development, in particular,are …
Chose Visual Studio
Visual Studio IDE is on par with Rider. There are some code insights and package management that Rider does better, but it's the debugger and profiling I find more powerful in Visual Studio IDE. I also consider the UI in Visual Studio IDE to be more appealing and intuitive to …
Best Alternatives
NetBeansMicrosoft Visual Studio
Small Businesses
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
NetBeansMicrosoft Visual Studio
Likelihood to Recommend
7.8
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.5
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
NetBeansMicrosoft Visual Studio
Likelihood to Recommend
If your organization works with developing or supporting Java applications and is focused on running efficiently with a lean budget, NetBeans would be a good choice to consider.
If your development staff uses other languages, or prefers a high level of available professional IDE support, it may be better to consider a paid option if your budget allows.
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When working with base C# code for desktop and web projects, then Microsoft Visual Studio is ideal as it provides the libraries and interfaces needed to quickly create, test and deploy solutions. It is when slightly more complex scenarios are required that issues can arise. The built-in integration for things like PowerBI Paginated Reports and dashboards is far from ideal.
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Pros
  • Great code completion, just start typing some code and the program will fill in the code.
  • Find/Replace is a key feature and works through whole projects as opposed to just a single file.
  • Side by side code comparison right in the interface allows me to update similar pages.
  • I appreciate the ease of using variable highlighting, with a wave of the mouse you can see visually where a given variable exists in your code.
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  • Since Microsoft offers a free Community Edition of the IDE many of our new developers have used it at home or school and are very familiar with the user interface, requiring little training to move up to the paid, enterprise-friendly editions we use.
  • The online community support for Visual Studio is outstanding, as solid or better than any other commercial or open-source project software.
  • Microsoft continuously keeps the product up to date and has maintained a history of doing so. They use it internally for their own development so there is little chance it will ever fall out of favor and become unsupported.
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Cons
  • Heavy software needs more RAM. It does tend to use a lot of your computer's resources if you're loading up a huge project and slow things down.
  • Problems with configuring plugins.
  • With every release of a new version, there are some bugs which create problems while coding.
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  • Would be great if there was a better way to save and restore open tabs.
  • The built-in test runner can be improved, for example, by adding the ability to save a set of commonly run tests, etc.
  • Better integration for Microsoft SQL server would be great.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
VS is the best and is required for building Microsoft applications. The quality and usefulness of the product far out-weight the licensing costs associated with it.
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Usability
Netbeans enhances my coding work, shows me where I have errors and helps find variable instances. I would be lost without find/replace in projects functionality as I use projects as templates for new projects. Occasionally the code hints aggravate me, but I understand that it is actually making me a better coder, working to get the 'green light' of a clean file with no errors or clumsy code.
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Using the Microsoft Visual Studio environment is very easy. You have many options to find what you need in the moment, or you can ask a question in the community and find an answer there to solve your problem. It is very interesting to learn about the community, as many people are developing with MS Visual Studio around the world.
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Support Rating
NetBeans has a very strong user community. We can find solutions here for almost all the problems we face. In addition, we can forward NetBeans Support teams the problems we cannot solve. We can get quick feedback from the support teams, but I generally try to solve my problems by following the forums.
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There are many resources available supporting Visual Studio IDE. Microsoft whitepapers, forum posts, and online Visual Studio documentation. There are countless demonstration videos available, as well. If users are having issues, they can call Microsoft Support, but depending on the company's agreement with Microsoft, the number of included support calls will vary from organization to organization. I've found that Microsoft support calls can be hit or miss depending on who you get, but they can usually get you with the right support person for your issue.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
IT is very complicated to understand all the functions that the environment has if you are not familiar with this type of development environments. It is important to select a good in-person training to achieve to understand all the possibilities and the capacity of the application. In this case, you will be able to develop a lot type of different applications.
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Online Training
No answers on this topic
If you are not accustomed to develop in this type of development environments it would be complicated to follow all the parts of the course because if the course does not include a great tour with all the concepts to develop you will not have the option to understand all the functions.
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Alternatives Considered
IBM Rational Application Developer and IntelliJ IDEA are great with hell lot of features packed into the product and are subscription based. However, most of the features they were providing were moot from my organization's business perspective and the cost was expensive. Eclipse is an opensource product with great features, but is difficult to configure and use as compared to NetBeans. One of the frustrating issues we faced with Eclipse was its slowness while saving a file. http://https//stackoverflow.com/questions/40166270/eclipse-neon-pathetically-slow
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Eclipse is primarily used for Java development, and Android Studio is used for Android app development. Since our work is mainly focused on .NET applications, we use Microsoft Visual Studio to develop our software solutions. Microsoft Visual Studio IDE is way above the rest of the development tools by miles due to its ease of use and ease of software development.
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Return on Investment
  • It changed my way of coding. In my early days of development I never indented code, but with NetBeans my coding way has changed.
  • One IDE for all languages. I can write code in PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in only one editor or IDE.
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  • One of the most important components of Visual Studio IDE is team collaboration, which improves team productivity.
  • It supports a wide range of languages. It's simple to add a library and have the IDE display autocomplete, suggestions, and errors while you code.
  • Visual Studio has a lot of shortcuts, which helps me a lot by saving a lot of time. Its dark theme appeals to me. Intellisense has been quite beneficial.
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ScreenShots