Eclipse IDE vs Visual Studio
Eclipse IDE
eclipseide.org
Visual Studio
visualstudio.microsoft.comSide by side
| Figure | Eclipse IDE | Visual Studio |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 18 |
| Spec score · IDE Software | 8.9 (#5) | 8.3 (#16) |
| Spec score · Integrated Development Environments | 8.8 (#7) | 8.3 (#18) |
| Spec score · Web Development IDEs | 8.9 (#5) | 8.4 (#14) |
| Documentation | The documentation site provides HTML help for Eclipse IDE 2026-09 (4.41) and earlier quarterly releases. | Microsoft Learn provides a Visual Studio product-family documentation hub covering installation, development, debugging, testing, deployment and extensibility. |
| Headquarters | Brussels, Belgium | Microsoft's global headquarters are in Redmond, Washington. |
| Rating on Capterra | 4.3 out of 5 from 205 reviews | 4.6 out of 5 from 3,017 reviews |
| Rating on G2 | 4.3 out of 5 from 3,221 reviews | 4.5 out of 5 from 4,007 reviews |
| Rating on Gartner Peer Insights | 4.6 out of 5 from 185 reviews | 4.5 out of 5 from 1,723 reviews |
| Rating on TrustRadius | 8.3 out of 10 from 418 reviews | 8.8 out of 10 from 863 reviews and ratings |
| Support | The site points users to community chat, issue reporting, documentation, and the Eclipse IDE Working Group mailing list for help. | Visual Studio provides a product-specific support page for help with issues related to Visual Studio. |
| What it does | Eclipse IDE is an open, community-driven development environment and platform. | Visual Studio is an integrated development environment for creating, debugging, testing and deploying applications across web, cloud, desktop and mobile targets. |
Plans
Visual Studio
- CommunityPrice not published
- Professional monthly$45 a month
- Enterprise monthly$250 a month
- Professional standard$99.99 a year
- Enterprise standard$499.92 a year
- IDE standalone$499, paid once
- Visual Studio CommunityFree
- Visual Studio CommunityFree
- Visual Studio Professional monthly$45 a month
- Visual Studio Professional monthly$45 a month
In their own words
Eclipse IDE
Eclipse IDE has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Visual Studio
Visual Studio is a Windows IDE for building web, cloud, desktop, and mobile apps, as well as services and games. It combines code editing, graphical designers, compilers, code completion, source control, and extensions. Listed development support covers Windows desktop, ASP.NET web work, Python, Node.js,.NET Core, Docker tools, and cross-platform C++ libraries. Debugging and testing tools include IntelliTrace, memory dump analysis, static code analysis, unit testing, code coverage, and IntelliTest. GitHub support lets users authenticate, create repositories, and push commits within the IDE. Visual Studio can create and manage Azure resources and deploy applications, and it supports Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions for CI/CD automation. GitHub Copilot provides code completion, chat, multi-file editing, debugging assistance, and test generation. Community is free, subject to limits for enterprise organizations. Professional monthly access costs $45 a month, and Enterprise monthly access costs $250 a month. A free trial is listed.