A comparison of features provided by Microsoft's Visual
Studio Express editions and SharpDevelop is shown in the Table
below.
| Feature | SharpDevelop 4.1 | SharpDevelop 4.0 | Visual Studio 2010 Express Editions |
| Code Auto-Completion |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Code Syntax Highlighting |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Windows Forms Designer |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Web Forms Designer |
No |
No |
Provided with Visual Web Developer |
| WPF Designer |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Code Coverage |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Unit Testing |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Languages Supported |
C#, C++, VB.NET, Boo, F#, IronPython, IronRuby |
C#, C++, VB.NET, Boo, F#, IronPython, IronRuby |
C#, C++, VB.NET, JavaScript (IronPython and IronRuby
support is available with Visual Studio 2010 Shell) |
| Window Phone Development Support |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Cloud Application Development (Windows Azure) |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Profiling |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Help Documentation |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Plug-in Support |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Insert PInvoke Signatures |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Testing Regular Expressions |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Class View |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Solution Explorer |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Project and Solution File Format |
MSBuild |
MSBuild |
MSBuild |
| Web References |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Refactorings |
Rename, Extract Method, Remove unused imports |
Rename, Extract Method, Remove unused imports |
Rename, Extract Method |
| Go To Definition |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Find References |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Code Generation |
Yes. Not as powerful as Visual Studio's Code Snippet
Manager. |
Yes. Not as powerful as Visual Studio's Code Snippet
Manager. |
Yes |
| Object Browser |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Database Explorer |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Publishing |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Data Sources View |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Add Data Source Wizard |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Document Outline View |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Resources |
Local and project |
Local and project |
Local and project |
| ActiveX Toolbox Items |
Partial - need to generate .NET interop library |
Partial - need to generate .NET interop library |
Yes |
| Integrated Debugger |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Targeting Different .NET Frameworks |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Reporting |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Task List |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Error List |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Database Designer Tools |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Code Conversion |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Integrated WiX Support |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Integrated FxCop Support |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Integrated StyleCop Support |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Navigation History |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| XPath Queries |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Incremental Search |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Attach to Process |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Navigate To |
Yes (called Go To in SharpDevelop) |
Yes (called Go To in SharpDevelop) |
No |
| Version Control Support |
Git, Subversion |
Git, Subversion |
No |
| XML Documentation Preview and Generation |
No preview support |
No preview support |
No |
| NuGet |
Yes |
No |
Available in Visual Web Developer Express |
| T4 Templates |
Yes |
No preview support |
Yes |