Developer

Microsoft has announced big changes this year to its developer tools this past year – all in the right direction it seems going by feedback. From helping game developers through the purchase and integration of the UnityVS plugin for Visual Studio, to the huge decision to work with the Mono community to open-source .NET, all the way through to helping those developers using other platforms by making Visual Studio’s MSBuild tool open-source.

Work on Visual Studio 2015 started last November and the company has been releasing technical previews for developers to take an early-look at how the popular IDE is progressing, however, until now we had no idea what the exact line-up would look like or how much it will cost…

All of this was revealed by Mitra Azizirad, General Manager of Developer Platform Marketing and Sales, who says: “We’re bringing the value we deliver in Visual Studio Premium and Visual Studio Ultimate into one single offering called Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN. It includes all the high value features you’re already familiar with in Visual Studio Ultimate, along with new innovation that’s coming with the 2015 release.”

He continues: “So, in addition to Visual Studio Community and Visual Studio Professional with MSDN, our new Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN rounds out the three primary Visual Studio 2015 offerings.”

This is how the features of the three editions break-down;

Visual Studio Community 2015

– Full-featured Integrated Development Environment for building Web, Windows Desktop and cross-platform iOS, Android, and Windows apps.

– Ecosystem with thousands of extensions to choose from in the Visual Studio Gallery.

– Free for open source projects, academic research, training, education and small professional teams.

Visual Studio 2015 Professional with MSDN

– Professional developer tool for building any application type.

– Powerful features to improve your team’s productivity such as CodeLens.

– Improve team collaboration with Agile project planning tools, Team Rooms, charts and more.

– MSDN subscription benefits including access to core software for dev/test, Team Foundation Server, Visual Studio Online Basic, 50ドル/month in Azure credits, training and support.

– Cost 1,199ドル for new customers.

Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise with MSDN

– Combines Visual Studio Premium with MSDN and Visual Studio Ultimate with MSDN into one product line.

– End-to-end solution for your development teams, including the most feature-rich Visual Studio IDE for working on any type of project.

– Build quality applications at scale with advanced features such as Load Testing, automated and manual testing and new IntelliTest capabilities.

– Manage complexity and resolve issues quickly with features such as Code Map and IntelliTrace.

– Enhanced MSDN subscription benefits including comprehensive access to software for dev/test, Team Foundation Server, Visual Studio Online Advanced, 150ドル/month in Azure credits, training and support.

– Cost 5,999ドル for new customers.

You can find out more about the new Visual Studio 2015 offerings and their benefits over on their website.

Alternatively, you can test the latest features in the most-recent technical preview for free but be aware this is not necessarily a representation of the final version due for release later this year. You can find the download here: Visual Studio 2015 CTP6.

What do you think about Visual Studio 2015’s pricing and features? Let us know in the comments.

About the Author

Ryan Daws

Senior Editor

Ryan Daws is a senior editor at TechForge Media with over a decade of experience in crafting compelling narratives and making complex topics accessible. His articles and interviews with industry leaders have earned him recognition as a key influencer by organisations like Onalytica. Under his leadership, publications have been praised by analyst firms such as Forrester for their excellence and performance. Connect with him on X (@gadget_ry), Bluesky (@gadgetry.bsky.social), and/or Mastodon (@gadgetry@techhub.social)