Member Avatar for Reapt

Newbie programmer here. I want to really learn C#. Other than VS what other IDE's are there?

Edited by Reapt because: Typo
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A short, practical update to the answers already in this thread and a few picks to try depending on your goals and platform.

For a full, supported Windows IDE the current recommended route is Visual Studio Community (free for individual developers and many learning uses); Visual Studio for Mac was retired in 2024, so macOS users are generally using VS Code or Rider these days. (visualstudio.microsoft.com)

If you want a lightweight, cross-platform workflow that still behaves like an IDE, use Visual Studio Code with the C# Dev Kit / C# extension plus the .NET SDK (dotnet CLI). That combo gives IntelliSense, debugging, test discovery and templates without the full Visual Studio install. Create and run a quick console app like this:

dotnet new console -o MyApp
cd MyApp
dotnet run

The C# Dev Kit adds a more Visual-Studio-like experience in VS Code; the .NET SDK/CLI is cross-platform (including ARM builds for devices such as Raspberry Pi). (devblogs.microsoft.com)

If you prefer a single full IDE that works on Windows, macOS and Linux, consider JetBrains Rider (commercial, but feature-rich and fast). For very small or embedded targets you can also use editors (Vim, Emacs, Sublime) with the OmniSharp tooling, or MonoDevelop on some platforms — note the runtime “Mono” and the IDE “MonoDevelop” are different things. (jetbrains.com)

Practical pick for a beginner: on Windows start with Visual Studio Community; on macOS/Linux start with VS Code + C# Dev Kit and learn the dotnet CLI (it teaches how projects build and run). was right that languages and IDEs are different, and touched on Mono/MonoDevelop — just be careful which one you mean — and ’s link shows there are many community IDEs if you want to explore older or niche tools.

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Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

vb is not an ide but a programming language, just like C# is a programming language. Probably the best IDE is Visual Studio. The Express version is free.

Member Avatar for Momerath

Member Avatar for Bob Hensley

Newbie programmer here. I want to really learn C#. Other than VS what other IDE's are there?

Mono is probably the next most popular IDE after Visual Studio. It's not bad, I've used it sparingly over the years. But I think you'll find that you're better off sticking to Visual Studio unless you have a very convincing reason to not use it. Especially given Microsoft provides the Express edition free of cost.

Member Avatar for RichardGalaviz

If you want to really learn C#, then move on to the professionals in the same field so that you can get enough information on what you need to know. From online you can find such professionals very easily by searching Google.

Member Avatar for JOSheaIV

Mono is probably the next most popular IDE after Visual Studio.

I know a little side tracked, but Bob Hensley, have you tried using Mono on Linux? I got a Raspberry Pi I want to turn into a dev box

Edited by JOSheaIV
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