Microsoft discloses Visual Studio 2013 pricing, rollout plans
Microsoft plans to hold the line with pricing for the latest version of Visual Studio, officials disclosed this week.
Visual Studio 2013 prices are unchanged from the corresponding Visual Studio 2012 products, according to Microsoft execs. Those who get access to Visual Studio via their MSDN subscriptions won't have to pay anything to move to the latest version when it becomes generally available on October 18, officials added. (The "vast majority" of Visual Studio customers get their VS releases through their MSDN subscriptions, company officials say.)
There will be one change in the SKU line-up between Visual Studio 2012 and 2013. Microsoft will be reintroducing a Visual Studio Professional 2013 Upgrade SKU for customers running Visual Studio 2012 Professional. For a limited time (November 1, 2013 through January 31, 2014), those interested in the VS Professional 2013 Upgrade SKU can get it for $99 from the Microsoft Online Store. After that time, the price will be $299.
Current Visual Studio 2012 prices include:
- Visual Studio 2012 Professional: $499
- Visual Studio 2012 Professional with MSDN: $799
- Visual Studio 2012 Premium with MSDN: $2,569
- Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate with MSDN: $4,249
Update (November 14): As a few readers have noted, the prices above are the “renewal” prices only, and not the full prices for new customers who are buying Visual Studio for the first time. Those prices are higher. Here are the prices for first-time VS purchasers.
Microsoft made the Visual Studio 2013 release candidate available for download in September. The Visual Studio 2013 launch event is November 13, but MSDN subscribers will get access to the Visual Studio 2013 RTM bits on October 18, which is Windows 8.1's general availability date. Visual Studio 2013 with MSDN will be available through volume licensing on November 1, and from retail resellers "soon after," according to Microsoft's VS 2013 pricing page.
Visual Studio 2013 -- and Net 4.5.1 -- add support for asynchronous debugging (when using VS 2013 on Windows 8.1, not older Windows releases) for C#, VB, JavaScript and C++ developers, among other features. The latest VS release also adds improvements for those using XAML, HTML and JavaScript to build Windows Store/Metro-Style apps. Microsoft made an initial public preview of Visual Studio 2013 available in late June of this year.