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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Notepad++

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/ANotepad++ is a popular free and open source text editor available under the GPL license, featuring syntax highlighting and folding, auto-complete, multi-document management, and ac customizable GUI.N/A

    Visual Studio

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AVisual 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
    Notepad++Visual Studio
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Professional
    $45.00
    per month
    Enterprise
    $250.00
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Notepad++Visual 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
    Notepad++Visual Studio
    Considered Both Products
    Open Source
    Chose Notepad++
    vscode is also a text editor and in many ways is more powerful than Notepad++. Notepad++ is simpler, faster and less busy. vscode is nicer for more complicated things, such as working with multiple files that are related (say a complex set of python scripts) or in a project …
    Incentivized
    Chose Notepad++
    In comparison to vs code, Notepad is less complexed solution with maybe less testing or implementation options but also with better script edition control thanks to the code formatting options. It depends on the task we have but for less complexed scripting that doesn't require …
    Incentivized
    Chose Notepad++
    Notepad++ is easy to use, its simple user interface makes your coding more relaxed and joyful. You can use Notepad++ for many other works like saving text messages or text files or email-related work for a company. Notepad++ is easy to understand, and coding and debugging in …
    Incentivized
    Chose Notepad++
    I didn’t care for the way some things were handled in other programs I tried, and I’ve stuck with Notepad++ since.
    Incentivized
    Chose Notepad++
    Atom is a nice little notepad and editor, but it's a bit overkill for a simple note-taking app and doesn't quite compare to Visual Studio Code for more robust tasks like software development. It does have more polish than Notepad++, but the experience is somehow more clumsy. Sub…
    Incentivized
    Chose Notepad++
    When I have to quickly review code or open a file to review something, opening Visual Studio is overkill. It takes time for the full-fledged IDE to open and initialize. When I need to get something done quickly, I use Notepad++ because nothing can compare to its speed. I also …
    Incentivized
    Chose Notepad++
    Notepad has competitors like Sublime Text and Atom. It may lack their rich user interface, extensive configurability, and customizability, but it still remains the gold standard when it comes to its core competency which is text analysis and editing. It is extremely fast. Many …
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    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.
    Incentivized
    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 …
    Incentivized
    Chose Visual Studio
    While I am not a Java developer, I have used NetBeans in the past. I found the NetBeans interface to be more intuitive than the Visual Studio IDE. However, it was also more limited in scope. VS Code, on the other hand, is simplicity itself. It is excellent as just a text …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    41 Answers
    98%
    Would buy again
    40 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    41 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    40 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    41 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    41 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    26 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    32 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    30 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    36 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Notepad++Visual Studio
    Small Businesses
    BBEdit
    Score10 out of 10
    IntelliJ IDEA
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Vim
    Score9.8 out of 10
    PyCharm
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Vim
    Score9.8 out of 10
    WebStorm
    Score9.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Notepad++Visual Studio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (62 ratings)
    9.1
    (118 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.2
    (15 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.1
    (15 ratings)
    8.8
    (15 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Notepad++Visual Studio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Open Source
    well suited for 1) Coding and Development - Writing and editing code, Quick prototyping and testing of code snippets, Debugging and inspecting code using syntax highlighting and line numbering, 2) web development - Creating and editing HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other web-related files .Managing and organizing web projects with multiple files and directories. Not suited for - 1) processing huge files 2) graphic designing 3) complex gui designs 3) Data Analysis and Manipulation - Editing and cleaning up text-based data files before importing them into analytical tools. Applying regular expressions to extract, transform, and manipulate data. 4) System Administration and IT - change system configuration file
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Open Source
    • Notepad++ allows us to keep open files in tabs. Like in a web browser, these tabs let us access these files quickly and easily. Furthermore, even if we forget to save the files when closing the program or shutting down the PC, Notepad++ retains them in the open tabs when we reopen it.
    • Notepad++ supports many different file types. We usually save our files created in Notepad as normal text files, but sometimes as JSON, PHP, and HTML files.
    • Notepad++ is lightweight and requires little resources. Using it is snappy and responsive.
    • The developer of Notepad++ frequently updates the software with bug fixes, performance improvements and new features.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • I like how the tabs and panels are organized; everything is gathered together so you can find what you're looking for quickly.
    • If you can't find something, there's a thorough search engine that searches all of Visual Studio's features.
    • The Team Foundation Server feature is fantastic since it allows us to easily deploy and roll back changes on the server.
    Read full review
    Cons
    Open Source
    • UI looks a bit dated.
    • Sometimes the number of options are overwhelming and require a quick search to figure out where to locate a particular function.
    • Some way to do a diff between files would be great. Still need to resort to another paid app for that - unless it is a buried function I don't know about or there's a plugin for it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Open Source
    I use it every day for 13 years already and it never disappointed me
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Open Source
    There are lot of features to talk about. Especially the usability is good. Everyone can easily to use and user-friendly. Can also update easily. Can also write and execute the programming languages like C, C++ etc. Encoding is also the major feature that helps me a lot and converter as well.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I love the overall usability of Microsoft Visual Studio. I’ve been using this IDE for more than 20 years, and I’ve seen it evolve by leaps and bounds. Today, with AI and code-suggestion/completion features, developers no longer need to remember countless libraries, methods, or language syntax, or invest a huge amount of programming effort to complete a project. It truly offers everything a developer needs to program, debug, test, and deploy in a single IDE.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Open Source
    I haven't needed to utilize any support related to Notepad++. I guess this is a good thing because I found it to be quite intuitive. There are almost infinite features you can tweak and plugins you can download but I haven't had to do that because Notepad++ is really good right out of the box.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    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.
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Open Source
    Notepad for Windows, Microsoft Word...LibreOffice Writer....I have used all of these for code writing and editing. Once again I like the universal feel of Notepad++. Basic Notepad, is just that, basic...and kind of clunky for what it is. This is a cool that I have installed on all my computers and also keep it on a thumb drive if I need it elsewhere.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    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, quality testing and gives features to extract TRX file as result of testing which includes all the summary of each test case.
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    Return on Investment
    Open Source
    • Productivity has increased for developers.
    • It's free so instead of buying a piece of software, you can use this to replace many of them that may only specialize in one thing.
    • It gives our developers confidence knowing they have such a reliable, free tool at their disposal.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • Using the integration between Visual Studio and our source control service, the cost of re-work and losing code is drastically reduced.
    • Paid versions of Visual Studio enable developers to be so much more productive than hacked-together open source solutions that it's hard to imagine developing in Windows without it.
    • When combined with support subscriptions and the vast array of free online help options available, Visual Studio saves our developers time by keeping them coding and testing, not wasting their time trying to guess their way out of problems or spend endless hours online hoping to find answers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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