Visual Studio
Buy a genuine Visual Studio 2022 Professional, Visual Studio 2022 Enterprise, Visual Studio 2026 Professional or Enterprise, or Visual Studio 2019 Professional license key. Every key here is a standalone perpetual license for one developer, a one-time purchase with no annual renewal, and the license type is stated on the product page. Delivery is by email within minutes of payment.
Showing all 5 results
Showing all 5 results
Visual Studio 2022 Professional and the other editions we sell
Visual Studio is Microsoft's integrated development environment for building applications in C#, C++, Visual Basic, F#, Python, JavaScript and TypeScript, targeting Windows, the web, mobile, cloud and cross-platform .NET. This category holds every standalone Visual Studio license we sell: Visual Studio 2022 Professional, Visual Studio 2022 Enterprise, Visual Studio Professional 2026, Visual Studio Enterprise 2026 and Visual Studio 2019 Professional. Each is a genuine product key that unlocks the IDE as a perpetual license, a one-time purchase with no annual renewal.
Before comparing editions, an honest note. Microsoft offers Visual Studio Community free of charge for individual developers, open source contributors, classroom learning, academic research and small teams, within the limits Microsoft's license terms define. If you fall inside those limits, Community has almost the same feature set as Professional and you may not need to buy anything. The paid Professional and Enterprise editions exist for organizations outside those limits and for developers who need the Enterprise-only tooling. What we sell are the standalone keys for those two editions, delivered by email within minutes, with the license type stated on each product page.
Community, Professional or Enterprise: what changes
The three editions share the same editor, debugger, compilers, Git tooling and project system. The differences are licensing terms and a set of advanced tools that Microsoft reserves for Enterprise.
| Feature or right | Community | Professional | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price model | Free within Microsoft's usage limits | Paid, perpetual per-user key | Paid, perpetual per-user key |
| Use in larger organizations | Not permitted beyond the small-team and non-enterprise limits | Permitted | Permitted |
| Core IDE, debugger, IntelliSense, Git, NuGet | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CodeLens code insights | Limited | Yes | Yes |
| Live Share and collaborative debugging | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| IntelliTrace historical debugging | No | No | Yes |
| Live Unit Testing | No | No | Yes |
| Code coverage analysis and Microsoft Fakes | No | No | Yes |
| Architecture tools (dependency validation, code maps) | No | No | Yes |
| Snapshot Debugger for Azure | No | No | Yes |
For most professional developers writing line-of-business applications, web APIs and desktop software, Visual Studio Professional is the right edition. Enterprise earns its cost when a team relies on IntelliTrace to diagnose production issues, on Live Unit Testing to run tests continuously as code changes, or on the architecture validation tools to enforce layering in a large codebase.
Visual Studio 2019, 2022 or 2026
Visual Studio 2022 was the first 64-bit release of the IDE, which let it open very large solutions without the memory ceiling of earlier versions. It supports .NET 6 through the current .NET releases, .NET Framework 4.x, and the C++20 toolchain, and it remains the release most teams standardize on today. Visual Studio 2026 is the newest release, built on the 2022 foundation with a refreshed interface, performance work and deeper integration of AI-assisted coding, and it targets the latest .NET and C++ toolsets. Visual Studio 2019 is an older release now in Microsoft's extended support phase; it still installs and activates, and it is the right pick for maintaining legacy .NET Framework projects or older build servers that have not been migrated.
Solutions and project files move between 2019, 2022 and 2026 in most cases, and the releases install side by side on one machine. If you are starting a new project, choose 2022 for maximum library and extension compatibility or 2026 for the newest tooling. If you are supporting an existing product, match the version your build pipeline uses.
Which edition should I choose?
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 Professional: the standard choice for a working developer or a small team. The most widely used release, with the broadest extension support.
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 Enterprise: adds IntelliTrace, Live Unit Testing, code coverage, Microsoft Fakes and architecture tools for teams that use them.
- Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2026: the newest Professional edition for developers who want the current interface and toolset from the start.
- Microsoft Visual Studio Enterprise 2026: the newest release with the full Enterprise toolset.
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 Professional: for maintaining older projects or matching an existing 2019 build environment.
Visual Studio is licensed per user. The licensed developer may install and use it on more than one of their own devices, such as a desktop and a laptop, but each additional developer on the team needs their own license. Count people, not machines.
How activation and delivery work
- Choose the edition and version, check the license type on the product page, and pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through our encrypted, PCI-compliant checkout.
- Within minutes of payment, 7 days a week, we email the 25-character product key, the official Microsoft download link and a short guide. The key is also saved under My Account.
- Run the Visual Studio installer from Microsoft, pick the workloads you need, and let it install. Start Visual Studio, open the Help menu, choose Register Product (or About, then Unlock with a Product Key), and enter your key. The IDE unlocks immediately and no trial countdown remains.
- If anything goes wrong, email support@softwareinstore.com. A person answers every day of the week.
Every key is covered by our 30-day money-back guarantee. If a key cannot be activated and our support team cannot resolve the problem, we replace the key or refund the order in full.
Standalone key or Visual Studio subscription
Microsoft sells Visual Studio Professional and Enterprise two ways: as an annual Visual Studio subscription that bundles the IDE with Azure credits, a software download library and other benefits, or as a standalone license that covers the IDE alone. What we sell is the standalone, perpetual license. It unlocks Visual Studio Professional or Enterprise permanently for one named user, and it does not renew. It does not include subscription benefits such as Azure credits, the MSDN software library or Microsoft 365 developer tenants. If the IDE is what you need, the standalone key is the cost-effective route. If your team depends on the subscription extras, the Microsoft subscription is the better fit. The license type, retail or volume, is stated on every product page.
Frequently asked questions
Is Visual Studio Community really free, and when can I not use it?
Yes, it is free. Microsoft licenses Visual Studio Community at no charge for individual developers working on their own projects, for open source contributions, for classroom and academic use, and for small teams in organizations below the size thresholds in Microsoft's license terms. Outside those cases, for example a development team inside a larger company, Microsoft requires Professional or Enterprise. If you qualify for Community, we encourage you to use it. If you do not, or you need Enterprise-only features such as IntelliTrace or Live Unit Testing, the keys in this category are the compliant route.
What is the difference between Visual Studio 2022 Professional and Enterprise?
Both include the full editor, debugger, compilers, Git integration, IntelliSense, CodeLens and Live Share. Enterprise adds IntelliTrace historical debugging, Live Unit Testing, code coverage analysis, Microsoft Fakes for isolating dependencies in unit tests, architecture validation and code maps, and the Snapshot Debugger for Azure App Service. If your team does not use those tools, Visual Studio Professional 2022 does everything you need. Teams working on large regulated codebases, or diagnosing intermittent production bugs, tend to be the ones that make real use of Enterprise.
Is a Visual Studio Professional license perpetual or does it expire?
The standalone keys we sell are perpetual. Once you enter the key, Visual Studio Professional or Enterprise is unlocked for that user with no expiry date and no annual renewal. This differs from a Visual Studio subscription from Microsoft, which is billed yearly and includes benefits beyond the IDE. A perpetual key covers the specific version you buy, such as Visual Studio 2022 or 2026, and continues to receive that version's updates from Microsoft. Moving to a future major version would require a new license.
How many computers can I install Visual Studio on with one key?
Visual Studio is licensed per user, not per device. The single developer who holds the license may install Visual Studio on any number of their own machines, for example an office desktop, a home PC and a laptop, and use it on each. What one key does not cover is a second developer. Every person who uses Visual Studio Professional or Enterprise needs their own license, so a team of four developers needs four keys. Build servers running Visual Studio Build Tools have their own separate licensing rules.
Does the key include Azure credits or MSDN downloads?
No. A standalone Visual Studio license unlocks the IDE and nothing else. Monthly Azure credits, the software download library that was historically called MSDN, Microsoft 365 developer tenants and technical support incidents are benefits of the annual Visual Studio subscription that Microsoft sells directly. If those benefits are essential to your workflow, a subscription is the right purchase. If you want the development environment itself as a one-time purchase with no recurring fee, the standalone Professional or Enterprise key is the better value.
Developers who buy Visual Studio often need a database server to develop against. Our SQL Server category has SQL Server 2022 Standard and Enterprise keys, and Microsoft's free Developer edition covers non-production use. For a step-by-step view of how ordering and delivery work, read how it works, or visit why trust us for our guarantee terms in full.