The Simplicity and Price of Visual Studio Code Make it the Preferred Web App Building Tool
October 22, 2019

The Simplicity and Price of Visual Studio Code Make it the Preferred Web App Building Tool

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Visual Studio Code

Microsoft Visual Studio Code is being used in our organization by the IT Department, of which I am a member. I use VS Code to build web-based applications to satisfy the needs and requirements of our internal operations. These web-based apps fill a specific need in our organization that off-the-shelf software does not address. Thus, VS Code gives us a way to better utilize our IT infrastructure through building custom solutions to solve particular business challenges.
  • It is a lightweight code editor.
  • It makes it easy to build and test APIs and web apps locally.
  • It is free, which means I can also develop apps on my own time and on my personal equipment in the same environment that I use for work.
  • It does not deploy to IIS.
  • It does not handle apps that require Windows authentication.
  • It cannot be used for remote debugging.
  • It has given me a (free!) way to develop internal web-based applications. Thus, the cost incurred by my organization is my development time.
  • The web-based applications I have built for my organization addresses specific business needs and reduces the likelihood of errors caused by the manual processes these apps replaced.
  • I could build these applications with another editor—such as a text editor or a fully functional IDE—but VS Code offers functionality that reduces typos while not bloating the final application's compiled files.
Visual Studio Code was easy for us to install and to begin developing applications with from day one. Being freely available also makes it easier to adopt the application without having to go through a lot of bureaucratic hurdles initially. It isn't really fair to compare VS Code to a text editor because it offers so much more than that, but it behaves like a text editor in its simplicity and responsiveness.
I have never contacted Microsoft directly for customer support with VS Code. However, there are lots of articles, blogs, Stack Overflow questions, etc., to be found via a simple web search to support one's use of VS Code for building all sorts of apps using a variety of languages and plug-ins.

Do you think Microsoft Visual Studio Code delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft Visual Studio Code's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft Visual Studio Code live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Microsoft Visual Studio Code go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft Visual Studio Code again?

Yes

I use VS Code specifically to develop internal web-based applications using an ASP .NET API back-end written in C# and an Angular front-end. It is very easy for me to use VS Code to spin up both the API and the front-end locally for development and testing. However, in order to conduct End-User Testing, I have to switch to the full-fledged Visual Studio to deploy my applications to IIS.