In-Depth
Free (Non-Commercial) JetBrains Rider vs. Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition
With JetBrains making its Rider and WebStorm IDEs freely available for non-commercial use, Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition has a new competitor, not to mention Visual Studio Code. So what's a (non-enterprise) .NET-centric developer to do now?
"In making non-commercial development free, we aim to make JetBrains IDEs more accessible to a broader audience," JetBrains said last week. "We hope the new licensing model will further lower the barrier to using our IDEs, helping you learn, grow, and stay creative."
It might do that, but it certainly opens up questions about how the new free Rider and WebStorm licenses compare to the free Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition and VS Code, always free and based on open-source tech with not-quite-open-source licensing.
JetBrains Rider is a cross-platform (Windows, macOS, and Linux) IDE primarily targeting .NET development. It's based on the company's IntelliJ open-source platform for building IDEs, and ReSharper, its Visual Studio extension designed to improve developer productivity. JetBrains said a community edition scheme of its own -- which many devs have asked for -- could have been implemented to achieve its "lower-the-barrier" goal, but it chose to go the non-commercial-license route instead.
"JetBrains IDEs often have monolithic functionality, with all features deeply integrated and essential for productive work," the company said. "Creating additional community editions would risk offering a feature set that doesn't meet the needs of the many different types of users we have."
Licensing
Thus the company opted for the non-commercial licensing route. It also offers educational licenses for students and teachers and open-source project licenses for qualifying projects.
This non-commercial approach requires users to log in to a JetBrains account and accept the license terms, similar to how Microsoft's community IDE works. The JetBrains licensing also requires consenting to data collection or telemetry, also similar to the Microsoft community approach. Once you've done that, work can be done for free for non-commercial endeavors including:
- Learning and educational purposes
- Open-source project development
- Content creation
- Hobby development
Visual Studio 2022's Community Edition, meanwhile, is free for individual developers and small teams. It also requires a Microsoft account and periodic signing in to keep it active. Its listed non-commercial usage guidance reads much like Rider/WebStorm, including:
- Learning and education
- Open-source projects
- Academic research
- Personal projects
Performance/Usage/Popularity
JetBrains has positioned Rider as a direct competitive alternative to Visual Studio in published guidance like "JetBrains Rider vs Visual Studio (with and without ReSharper)," which explains how JetBrains Rider -- a standalone .NET IDE -- differs from Microsoft Visual Studio, with and without JetBrains ReSharper extension. It also published "Moving from Visual Studio to JetBrains Rider" in 2021.
[Click on image for larger view.] JetBrains Rider vs Visual Studio (with and without ReSharper) (source: JetBrains).
Those comparisons have been made for a long time, as the three-year-old Reddit post, "Rider vs VS2022," post shows. There have also been many comparisons between Rider and VS Code.
A sampling of comparisons published over the years includes:
Nobody has time to comb through all of those to synthesize results, but Microsoft Copilot did it quickly:
JetBrains Rider vs Visual Studio
- Platform Support: Rider supports Windows, macOS, and Linux, while Visual Studio is primarily for Windows (with some support for Mac).
- Language Support: Rider supports a broader range of languages, including C#, VB.NET, JavaScript, TypeScript, XAML, XML, HTML, CSS, SQL, and more. Visual Studio focuses on Microsoft technologies like C#, Visual Basic, F#, and C++.
- Plugins and Extensions: Visual Studio has a larger ecosystem of plugins and extensions due to its longer presence in the market.
- User Experience: Rider is praised for its user experience and code analysis features, while Visual Studio is known for its comprehensive toolset and integration with Microsoft services.
- Cross-Platform Development: Rider is designed for cross-platform .NET development, making it a better choice for developers working on multiple operating systems.
JetBrains Rider vs Visual Studio Code
- Platform Support: Rider supports Windows, macOS, and Linux, while Visual Studio Code is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- Language Support: Rider supports a broader range of languages, including C#, VB.NET, JavaScript, TypeScript, XAML, XML, HTML, CSS, SQL, and more. Visual Studio Code supports a wide range of languages through extensions but is primarily focused on web development.
- Plugins and Extensions: Visual Studio Code has a vast marketplace of extensions, making it highly customizable.
- User Experience: Rider is known for its robust code analysis and productivity features, while Visual Studio Code is praised for its lightweight and flexible nature.
- Cross-Platform Development: Both IDEs support cross-platform development, but Rider is specifically tailored for .NET development.
Key Takeaways
- Platform Flexibility: Rider offers broader platform support compared to Visual Studio.
- Language Versatility: Rider supports a wider range of languages, especially for .NET development.
- Plugin Ecosystem: Visual Studio has a larger ecosystem of plugins and extensions, while Visual Studio Code offers extensive customization through its marketplace.
- User Experience: Rider is favored for its code analysis and user experience, while Visual Studio Code is appreciated for its lightweight and flexible nature.
Along with Gemini, which took the visual approach:
[Click on image for larger view.] Gemini Comparison (source: Gemini).
Developer Reports
All three offerings have been featured extensively in developer reports from the likes of Stack Overflow, GitHub and others, while JetBrains has weighed in with its own research, last year asking C# devs what IDE/editor they used most.
[Click on image for larger view.] JetBrains Survey (source: JetBrains).
Here, in JetBrains' own survey, Rider was sandwiched between Visual Studio and VS Code. Trends, though, showed Rider's usage generally increasing while Visual Studio's decreased steadily since the 2020 report.
Stack Overflow's big 2024 report, meanwhile, showed the survey's annual preponderance for VS Code, which has long topped the series of reports (and many other series of reports). Note how much better JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA (No. 3, 27%) fared than Rider (No. 16, 6%). The former primarily targets Java development.
[Click on image for larger view.] Stack Overflow 2024 Report (source: Stack Overflow).
With Rider and WebStorm now available with free non-commercial licensing, it will be interesting to see how industry opinions and surveys change in the future.
To review, here is a summary of the comparative licensing:
Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition Licensing
- Account Requirement: Requires a Microsoft account. You can sign in with an existing account or create a new one during the installation process.
- Sign-Up Process: You'll be prompted to sign in or create an account when you first open Visual Studio. Signing in helps keep your free license active and unlocks additional benefits like cloud services and access to the Visual Studio Dev Essentials program.
- License Activation: The free license is tied to your Microsoft account and needs to be renewed periodically by signing in.
JetBrains Rider Non-Commercial Licensing
- Account Requirement: Requires a JetBrains account. You can log in with an existing account or create a new one when you first open Rider.
- Sign-Up Process: Upon installation, a license dialog box will appear, where you can select the non-commercial use option and log in or create a JetBrains account.
- License Activation: The non-commercial license is available indefinitely and renews automatically every year. You need to accept the Toolbox Subscription Agreement for Non-Commercial Use.
About the Author
David Ramel is an editor and writer at Converge 360.