JetBrains Rider vs. Microsoft Visual Studio Code

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Rider
Score 9.6 out of 10
N/A
JetBrains supports .NET development with Rider, a .NET IDE based on the IntelliJ platform and ReSharper.
$149
per year per user
Microsoft Visual Studio Code
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft offers Visual Studio Code, a text editor that supports code editing, debugging, IntelliSense syntax highlighting, and other features.N/A
Pricing
JetBrains RiderMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
Editions & Modules
For Individuals
$149
per year per user
dotUltimate for Individual
$169
per year per user
All Products Pack for Individuals
$289
per year per user
For Organizations
$419
per year per user
dotUltimate for Organizations
$469
per year per user
All Products Pack for Organizations
$779
per year per user
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
RiderMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsdotUltimate: All .NET tools, ReSharper C++ and JetBrains Rider, together in one pack
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
JetBrains RiderMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
User Ratings
JetBrains RiderMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.7
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
JetBrains RiderMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
Likelihood to Recommend
I think it's the best IDE nowadays for game development, mainly in Unreal, but it's also the best one in cost/benefit for Unity. It might not work for people who prefer a more lightweight IDE, it's still pretty heavy and its indexing takes around 2~3GB of ram, but it's worth the quick indexing and IntelliSense.
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If your Source Control Software is Team Foundation Server then skip Visual Studio Code. If you're using GitHub and are creating small projects Visual Studio Code is the way to go. If you need to create a large, enterprise-level application, Visual Studio Code makes it easier to set up interactions between related projects (client & server). If you're interested in getting back to the old way of using the command line to create projects and you know what to enter in the console window then Visual Studio Code is great. Visual Studio Code is a better choice if you don't know the console commands and prefer to make selections from a menu.
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Pros
  • Helps you refactor your code into more readable and more efficient code.
  • Highly customizable UI, including color themes, shortcut key remappings, and the ability to put any Window, Toolbar, or Docked tab anywhere you want, even on second screens. Additionally, this functionality can be customized per project, not just globally for the whole machine.
  • More control over Git. Visual Studio just has the basics, but mostly all that is needed is for git repositories. It gets the job done., but Rider takes it one step further and gives you most of what you can do on the command line's simple, easy to access menu options.
  • If you use TeamCity, then you have complete and full integration into your TeamCity build server!
  • You can double tap your control key and get a quick pop up to instantly run any command. Double tap shift and you can search your entire project, filenames, AND text and filter that search!
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  • Robust plugin architecture replete with fantastic add-ons that make developer life delightful.
  • Integrated Terminal window allows you to stay in one application to perform most required tasks.
  • Customization options are robust. It is easy to modify VS Code to your own specifications.
  • It's free! Hard to believe such a well made, well maintained, robust software is a free download.
  • Command+P/Command+Shift+P key commands will improve your workflow dramatically.
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Cons
  • Things are starting to get slower as the IDE grows
  • Blazor integration is a bit lacky
  • Blazor hot reload could be automatically applied instead of having to click on Apply link/button.
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  • Unlike for most languages I have used, Ruby and Rails support available for Code users isn't great. The most popular Ruby extension is unofficial, and leaves much to desire. As an example, code navigation even with language server Solargraph installed isn't as good as IntelliJ's RubyMine.
  • Even there is quite good support for a language or a framework, it is almost never as good as a dedicated IDE for it. In terms of the sheer number of features available, IntelliJ IDEs handily beat Code.
  • Microsoft has close-sourced some of the extensions it develops for Code itself, e.g. Pylance for Python, and that has not been perceived as a good move for open-source.
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Likelihood to Renew
Due to the performance and productivity benefits we get with Rider, we will continue to use it for the foreseeable future.
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Solid tool that provides everything you need to develop most types of applications. The only reason not a 10 is that if you are doing large distributed teams on Enterprise level, Professional does provide more tools to support that and would be worth the cost.
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Usability
It's easy to learn while still advanced. It has smart tricks up it's sleeve that you have to find out but that is to be expected. It has a modern new UI that some will find too compact, but it took me just a day to like it more than to switch back.
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Looking at our current implementation, Microsoft Visual Studio Code is perfect for writing code and performing debug operations. Integration with SVN repository is easy and changes can be tracked effectively. Microsoft Visual Studio Code supports developers to write code productively using syntax check and easy customization. Microsoft Visual Studio Code also provides support for IntelliSense which prompts suggestions for code completion. It is easy to step through code using interactive debugger to inspect the root cause of error quickly.
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Support Rating
The support forums and knowledge base are extensive and the JetBrains support staff respond quickly to new posts and help resolve issues. There is also a publicly accessible issue tracking system, which allows you to stay on top of any bug fixes or enhancement requests.
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Active development means filing a bug on the GitHub repo typically gets you a response within 4 days. There are plugins for almost everything you need, whether it be linting, Vim emulation, even language servers (which I use to code in Scala). There is well-maintained official documentation. The only thing missing is forums. The closest thing is GitHub issues, which typically has the answers but is hard to sift through -- there are currently 78k issues.
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Alternatives Considered
It’s a great free tool but not as enhanced as IntelliJ platform that JetBrains Rider has. Debugging and access to database is not as comfortable to use. Sure, you can save money on IDE, but may need to spend it on sleeping and stress relief pills.
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All the previously listed are incredible development environments that perfectly fulfill this function, but [Microsoft] Visual Studio Code goes one step ahead by providing flexibility, customization and adaptability to development environments with its own methodology, for all this productivity. of the work team is greatly increased helping to achieve the objectives set in the organization.
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Return on Investment
  • Writing clearer C# code based on refactoring suggestions
  • Avoiding some obscure bugs that Rider has flagged in the IDE that would have taken a lot of time and effort to find and fix through testing
  • Cost of licenses, though the benefits outweigh the costs
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  • Saves money by replacing suites of tools such as Visual Studio, IntelliJ, etc.
  • Speeds development time and developer environment setup time
  • Strengthens code quality with integrated autoformatting and linting
  • Strengths Git practices by keeping version control tightly connected with the code
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ScreenShots