Development Tools · head to head
Visual Studio vs Buildkite
Visual Studio
Development Tools
IDE for .NET and C++ development on Windows
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Buildkite
Development Tools
CI/CD pipelines that run on your own compute
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Visual Studio community edition is free only for individual developers, classroom use, academic research and open-source contribution, not general commercial use; Buildkite free plan caps at 5 users and 10 concurrent jobs, with 2,000 Linux vCPU minutes per month and 30 day build retention
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Visual Studio and Buildkite actually diverge.
| Attribute | Visual Studio | Buildkite |
|---|
Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (freemium), free tier (Yes), platforms (Web), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Development Tools).
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Visual Studio
- Community edition is free only for individual developers, classroom use, academic research and open-source contribution, not general commercial use
- Monthly subscriptions are $45 per user per month for Professional and $250 per user per month for Enterprise, and do not include perpetual use rights the way annual Standard subscriptions do
- A standalone perpetually licensed Visual Studio Professional 2022 costs $499 as a one-time purchase, separate from the subscription tiers
Buildkite
- Free plan caps at 5 users and 10 concurrent jobs, with 2,000 Linux vCPU minutes per month and 30 day build retention
- Pro plan is $30 per active user per month, capped at 50 users, with only 10 of the up to 250 concurrent agents included before extra usage
- Enterprise plan enforces a 30 user minimum even though pricing itself is custom
- Hosted compute beyond included minutes is metered at $0.004 per vCPU minute on Linux and $0.02 per vCPU minute on Mac
Pricing, plan by plan
Visual Studio
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the Visual Studio review.
Buildkite
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the Buildkite review.
Which should you pick?
Questions people ask
- Is Visual Studio or Buildkite better?
- Neither clearly leads. Visual Studio starts at Free and Buildkite at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Visual Studio or Buildkite?
- Visual Studio starts at Free and Buildkite at Free.
- Does Visual Studio or Buildkite run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- Can I use Visual Studio for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
Related pages
More on Visual Studio
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