Visual Studio Express ((hot)) Jun 2026

Microsoft has continued to evolve Visual Studio Express over the years, eventually phasing it into a more unified Visual Studio product line. As of the latest releases, Visual Studio Community has become the successor to Visual Studio Express, offering a more comprehensive set of features while still being free. Visual Studio Community is aimed at individual developers and small teams, providing a significant upgrade in capabilities compared to Express, including support for plugins and extensions.

: The last release in this family was Visual Studio Express 2017 , which was limited primarily to desktop development. Key Features and Limitations visual studio express

: Full access to thousands of plugins in the Visual Studio Marketplace. Microsoft has continued to evolve Visual Studio Express