StackShareStackShare
Follow on
StackShare

Discover and share technology stacks from companies around the world.

Follow on

© 2025 StackShare. All rights reserved.

Product

  • Stacks
  • Tools
  • Feed

Company

  • About
  • Contact

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  1. Stackups
  2. DevOps
  3. Build Automation
  4. IDE
  5. CodeLite vs Visual Studio

CodeLite vs Visual Studio

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Visual Studio
Visual Studio
Stacks59.6K
Followers37.9K
Votes1.1K
CodeLite
CodeLite
Stacks12
Followers34
Votes4
GitHub Stars2.3K
Forks477

CodeLite vs Visual Studio: What are the differences?

  1. Key Difference 1: Pricing Model CodeLite is an open-source IDE that is completely free to use, while Visual Studio offers both a free Community edition and paid versions with additional features and support for enterprise development. This difference in pricing models can be a determining factor for developers or organizations with budget constraints.

  2. Key Difference 2: Platform Compatibility CodeLite is primarily designed for Linux and macOS, with Windows support available as well. On the other hand, Visual Studio is primarily focused on the Windows platform, offering a more comprehensive set of tools and features specifically tailored for Windows development. This difference allows developers to choose the IDE that aligns with their preferred platform.

  3. Key Difference 3: Feature Set Visual Studio provides a broader range of features and tools compared to CodeLite. It offers extensive capabilities for software development, including advanced debugging, performance profiling, database integration, and extensive third-party extensions support. CodeLite, while still feature-rich, is relatively lighter in terms of the number of built-in provided tools and functionalities.

  4. Key Difference 4: Development Ecosystem Visual Studio benefits from a mature and expansive development ecosystem, with a large community of developers and extensive documentation available. It also provides seamless integration with other Microsoft products and services, such as Azure cloud services and Microsoft Office. CodeLite, while having an active community, may not offer the same level of ecosystem integration and resources as Visual Studio.

  5. Key Difference 5: Language Support Visual Studio supports a wide range of programming languages, including popular ones like C#, C++, and Visual Basic, as well as web development languages like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. CodeLite, on the other hand, focuses primarily on C, C++, and PHP development, lacking the same level of support for other languages.

  6. Key Difference 6: Learning Curve CodeLite is often considered to have a relatively lower learning curve, especially for developers familiar with the Linux development environment. Its simple and intuitive interface, combined with its lightweight nature, makes it accessible to beginners. Visual Studio, with its extensive feature set and more complex interface, may have a steeper learning curve for newcomers.

In summary, CodeLite is a free and lightweight open-source IDE primarily focused on Linux and macOS, offering a simpler interface and a smaller feature set, while Visual Studio provides a wider range of tools and features, extensive platform compatibility, and a larger ecosystem support, but it is primarily tailored for the Windows platform and comes with a pricing model where free and paid versions are available.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs
CLI (Node.js)
or
Manual

Advice on Visual Studio, CodeLite

William
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

Visual Studio
Visual Studio
CodeLite
CodeLite

Visual Studio is a suite of component-based software development tools and other technologies for building powerful, high-performance applications.

It provides various code completion engines that can be enabled simultaneously so that developers can get more work done at a much faster rate.

-
Clang Based Code Completion Engine; JavaScript Code Completion; PHP Code Completion; Word Completion (based on open editors); Git, Svn plugins; Database Explorer; Valgrind Support; SpellChecker.
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
2.3K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
477
Stacks
59.6K
Stacks
12
Followers
37.9K
Followers
34
Votes
1.1K
Votes
4
Pros & Cons
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
Pros
  • 4
    Free and Open Source
Integrations
No integrations available
PHP
PHP
Node.js
Node.js
C++
C++
Git
Git
Eclipse
Eclipse

What are some alternatives to Visual Studio, CodeLite?

PhpStorm

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

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

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

NetBeans IDE

NetBeans IDE

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

PyCharm

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

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.

Android Studio

Android 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.

RubyMine

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

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

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.

Related Comparisons

GitHub
Bitbucket

Bitbucket vs GitHub vs GitLab

GitHub
Bitbucket

AWS CodeCommit vs Bitbucket vs GitHub

Kubernetes
Rancher

Docker Swarm vs Kubernetes vs Rancher

gulp
Grunt

Grunt vs Webpack vs gulp

Graphite
Kibana

Grafana vs Graphite vs Kibana