Android Studio vs Visual Studio

Overview

Android Studio

Stacks25.5K

Followers20.3K

Votes361

Visual Studio

Stacks59.6K

Followers37.9K

Votes1.1K

Android Studio vs Visual Studio: What are the differences?

Android Studio and Visual Studio are integrated development environments (IDEs) used for application development. Let's explore the key differences between Android Studio and Visual Studio:

Platform and Target Audience: Android Studio is specifically designed for developing Android applications. It provides a rich set of tools, emulators, and libraries tailored for Android development. Visual Studio, on the other hand, is a versatile IDE that supports multiple programming languages and platforms, including Windows, web, cloud, and mobile app development.
Language Support: Android Studio is optimized for Java and Kotlin. It provides features like code completion, linting, and debugging specific to these languages. Visual Studio, on the other hand, supports a wide range of programming languages, including C#, VB.NET, F#, JavaScript, TypeScript, and many others. It offers language-specific tools, frameworks, and extensions to enhance productivity for each supported language.
Integrated Tools and Services: Android Studio integrates with various Android-specific tools and services, such as the Android SDK, Android Virtual Device (AVD) Manager for emulators, and Google Play Services. It also offers built-in support for Google Cloud services, Firebase, and the Android Profiler for performance analysis. Visual Studio provides a comprehensive suite of tools and services, including version control integration (e.g., Git), testing frameworks, debugging tools, code refactoring, and extensive support for Azure cloud services.
UI Design and Layout: Android Studio includes a powerful visual editor called the Layout Editor, which allows developers to create, modify, and preview the user interface (UI) of their Android apps. It offers drag-and-drop functionality, XML editing, and device-specific UI previews. Visual Studio, on the other hand, provides XAML-based designers for building UI in platforms such as WPF, UWP, and Xamarin.Forms. It also supports HTML and CSS editing for web development.
Extensions and Plugin Ecosystem: Android Studio supports a wide range of plugins and extensions through the Android Studio Plugin Marketplace. Visual Studio also has a vast ecosystem of extensions, with the Visual Studio Marketplace offering a wide variety of plugins for different programming languages, frameworks, and integrations.

In summary, Android Studio and Visual Studio are powerful IDEs with different focuses and target audiences. Android Studio is tailored for Android app development with extensive support for Java and Kotlin, while Visual Studio is a versatile IDE supporting multiple languages and platforms.

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Advice on Android Studio, Visual Studio

Jana

Oct 8, 2021

Needs adviceon

Java

Hey, So I'm new to coding in Java and I'm planning to code an app, for both iOS and Android, and I'm not sure what IDE should I use. I want something that is free, easy to use, and beginner-friendly, but at the same time, I want all the features to be available in it since I want to try and code a social media app. Any help is appreciated!

141k views141k

Comments

William

Sep 10, 2019

Needs advice

The problem I have is whether to choose Android Studio or Visual Studio? I have to develop a simple app for a school project that can work on both iPhone and Android.

The most important factors for me are Android and iOS compatibility. Although note that i would like to become a Software Engineer when i finish my course. (I'd like to work for Apple, just saying!)

After that id like easy integration for Google Ads and such if i do develop another app that people actually use to support development. (I'd also like to stick with one easy programming language that's compatible with a wide variety of platforms since i'm a beginner and have only ever used Pascal)

565k views565k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Android Studio	Visual Studio
Android Studio is a new Android development environment based on IntelliJ IDEA. It provides new features and improvements over Eclipse ADT and will be the official Android IDE once it's ready.	Visual Studio is a suite of component-based software development tools and other technologies for building powerful, high-performance applications.
Flexible Gradle-based build system.;Build variants and multiple APK generation.;Expanded template support for Google Services and various device types.;Rich layout editor with support for theme editing.;Lint tools to catch performance, usability, version compatibility, and other problems.;ProGuard and app-signing capabilities.;Built-in support for Google Cloud Platform, making it easy to integrate Google Cloud Messaging and App Engine.	-
Statistics
Stacks 25.5K	Stacks 59.6K
Followers 20.3K	Followers 37.9K
Votes 361	Votes 1.1K
Pros & Cons
Pros 176 Android studio is a great tool, getting better and bet 103 Google's official android ide 37 Intelligent code editor with lots of auto-completion 25 Its powerful and robust 5 Easy creating android app Cons 4 Huge memory usage 4 Slow emulator 2 Using Intellij IDEA, while Intellij IDEA have too 2 No checking incompatibilities 2 Complex for begginers	Pros 305 Intellisense, ui 244 Complete ide and debugger 165 Plug-ins 104 Integrated 93 Documentation Cons 16 Bulky 14 Made by Microsoft 6 Sometimes you need to restart to finish an update 3 Too much size for disk 3 Only avalible on Windows
Integrations
Android SDK	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Android Studio, Visual Studio?

PhpStorm

PhpStorm is a PHP IDE which keeps up with latest PHP & web languages trends, integrates a variety of modern tools, and brings even more extensibility with support for major PHP frameworks.

IntelliJ IDEA

Out of the box, IntelliJ IDEA provides a comprehensive feature set including tools and integrations with the most important modern technologies and frameworks for enterprise and web development with Java, Scala, Groovy and other languages.

WebStorm

WebStorm is a lightweight and intelligent IDE for front-end development and server-side JavaScript.

NetBeans IDE

NetBeans IDE is FREE, open source, and has a worldwide community of users and developers.

PyCharm

PyCharm’s smart code editor provides first-class support for Python, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, TypeScript, CSS, popular template languages and more. Take advantage of language-aware code completion, error detection, and on-the-fly code fixes!

Eclipse

Standard Eclipse package suited for Java and plug-in development plus adding new plugins; already includes Git, Marketplace Client, source code and developer documentation. Click here to file a bug against Eclipse Platform.

RubyMine

JetBrains RubyMine IDE provides a comprehensive Ruby code editor aware of dynamic language specifics and delivers smart coding assistance, intelligent code refactoring and code analysis capabilities.

CLion

Knowing your code through and through, CLion can take care of the routine while you focus on the important things. Boost your productivity with the keyboard-centric approach (Vim-emulation plugin is also available in plugin repository), full coding assistance, smart and relevant code completion, fast project navigation, intelligent intention actions, and reliable refactorings.

Xcode

The Xcode IDE is at the center of the Apple development experience. Tightly integrated with the Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks, Xcode is an incredibly productive environment for building amazing apps for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Pharo

A pure object-oriented programming language and a powerful environment, focused on simplicity and immediate feedback.

Related Comparisons

Platform and Target Audience: Android Studio is specifically designed for developing Android applications. It provides a rich set of tools, emulators, and libraries tailored for Android development. Visual Studio, on the other hand, is a versatile IDE that supports multiple programming languages and platforms, including Windows, web, cloud, and mobile app development.
Language Support: Android Studio is optimized for Java and Kotlin. It provides features like code completion, linting, and debugging specific to these languages. Visual Studio, on the other hand, supports a wide range of programming languages, including C#, VB.NET, F#, JavaScript, TypeScript, and many others. It offers language-specific tools, frameworks, and extensions to enhance productivity for each supported language.
Integrated Tools and Services: Android Studio integrates with various Android-specific tools and services, such as the Android SDK, Android Virtual Device (AVD) Manager for emulators, and Google Play Services. It also offers built-in support for Google Cloud services, Firebase, and the Android Profiler for performance analysis. Visual Studio provides a comprehensive suite of tools and services, including version control integration (e.g., Git), testing frameworks, debugging tools, code refactoring, and extensive support for Azure cloud services.
UI Design and Layout: Android Studio includes a powerful visual editor called the Layout Editor, which allows developers to create, modify, and preview the user interface (UI) of their Android apps. It offers drag-and-drop functionality, XML editing, and device-specific UI previews. Visual Studio, on the other hand, provides XAML-based designers for building UI in platforms such as WPF, UWP, and Xamarin.Forms. It also supports HTML and CSS editing for web development.
Extensions and Plugin Ecosystem: Android Studio supports a wide range of plugins and extensions through the Android Studio Plugin Marketplace. Visual Studio also has a vast ecosystem of extensions, with the Visual Studio Marketplace offering a wide variety of plugins for different programming languages, frameworks, and integrations.

Android Studio vs Visual Studio