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Free tool · Open Value with Software Assurance · three-year agreement, paid annually
What a Visual Studio Professional or Enterprise subscription costs under an Open Value agreement — three annual payments, the licence yours at the end — against a monthly cloud subscription and a plain perpetual licence. Per developer, per month, over three, five and six years. Then request the agreement without leaving the page.
Step 1 of 3 · Your team
Prices per developer per year
Prefilled from Microsoft’s public list prices, converted to your currency at a typical rate. Open Value is quoted per country by the distributor; type the figures from your quote here and everything recalculates.
Enterprise has no perpetual-only option; the third column is empty for it.
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What you are buying
Four names for the parts of one purchase. Once they are clear, the price is easy to read.
A per-developer subscription that includes the Visual Studio IDE plus a catalogue of Microsoft software for development and testing — Windows, Windows Server, SQL Server, Office and more — that you may install on as many dev/test machines as you need without buying those products. Also Azure DevOps, GitHub Enterprise, a monthly Azure credit ($50 Professional, $150 Enterprise), support incidents and training. MSDN was the old name; the benefits are the same idea.
The subscription part of the licence: as long as SA is active you get every new version of Visual Studio, the dev/test software catalogue, the Azure credit and the rest. Let SA lapse and you keep the Visual Studio version you had — it is a perpetual licence — but the subscription benefits stop. SA is also what allows the price to be spread over three years.
Microsoft’s volume-licensing agreement for organisations of five or more users. Three-year term. The licence with SA is paid in three equal annual instalments — Microsoft’s own instalment plan, no interest. Licences can be added at any time during the term, pro-rated to the same end date. At the end of the three years the licences are fully paid and perpetual. We sign the agreement with you as the reseller; Microsoft issues the licences in your name on the Volume Licensing Service Center.
Two choices. Renew SA (another three-year Open Value renewal, or one year) and keep new versions, the dev/test catalogue and the Azure credit — at the renewal price, which is lower than the first-year price because you are no longer buying the licence. Or stop: you own the last version released while SA was active, for ever, but the subscription benefits end and the Azure credit stops. Renewal must be ordered before the agreement expires; after a lapse it is a new purchase at the first-year price.
Three ways to own it
The calculator prices all three. This is how to read the comparison.
Three annual payments, licence yours at the end, full benefits throughout. The cheapest way to hold Visual Studio for staff who will still be there in three years, and the only route that ends with an asset.
Pay per month, cancel any month, no perpetual rights and a reduced benefit set (no dev/test software catalogue). Right for contractors, interns and a six-month project. Over three years it costs more than Open Value and you own nothing at the end.
Professional only. One payment for that version, no new versions, no dev/test rights, no Azure credit, no Azure DevOps. Cheapest if all you want is the IDE for a long time and nothing else; expensive the moment you need SQL Server for a test lab.
Questions
At Microsoft’s public list price a Visual Studio Professional Standard subscription is $1,199 in the first year and $799 a year to renew, which is about $100 and $67 per developer per month. Under Open Value the three-year total is spread into three equal annual payments. The calculator shows the equivalent in EUR, GBP, CHF, SEK, NOK and DKK; the Open Value quote sets the final figure for your country.
$5,999 in the first year and $2,569 a year to renew at public list price, roughly five times Professional. What it adds: IntelliTrace, Live Unit Testing, Test Plans, Microsoft 365 Apps for production use, $150 of Azure credit a month. Most teams are on Professional.
Yes. Microsoft renamed MSDN subscriptions to Visual Studio subscriptions in 2016. The benefit set is the same idea: the IDE, dev/test software, Azure credit, DevOps and support.
The subscription component of the licence. While active: new versions, the dev/test software catalogue, Azure credit and the other benefits, plus the right to spread payment over three years under Open Value. When it lapses: you keep the last version as a perpetual licence; the benefits stop.
Yes. Under Open Value the licence with Software Assurance is fully paid after the third annual payment and is perpetual. To keep the subscription benefits after that you renew SA at the renewal price; otherwise you keep the version you have.
Three equal annual payments over a three-year term, invoiced by us on signing and on each anniversary, in your currency from the entity for your country. Licences added mid-term are pro-rated to the same end date so everything renews together.
No. Windows, SQL Server and the rest of the subscription catalogue are licensed for development and testing only. The one exception is Microsoft 365 Apps in Visual Studio Enterprise, which may be used in production by the subscriber.
In cash, the cloud subscription: at list prices about $1,620 over three years for Professional against about $2,800 under Open Value, and it stays cheaper over six. What Open Value buys for the difference: the dev/test software catalogue (Windows Server, SQL Server and the rest for test environments, which the cloud subscription does not include), $50 a month of Azure credit (worth $600 a year, most of the renewal price), and a perpetual licence at the end. For permanent developers who run test environments, Open Value; for a contractor on a short project, the cloud subscription.
Licensing servers for the dev/test lab in production too? Windows Server calculator → · SQL Server calculator →
Step 3 of 3 · Request the Open Value agreement
The configuration above is attached. You get back the distributor’s Open Value price for your country, the three-year payment schedule, and the agreement ready to sign, within two business days. Nothing is signed or billed until you approve it.
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List prices are Microsoft’s public prices; the Open Value quote for your country replaces them. Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Australia and Canada are quoted in USD, AUD or CAD by the entity for the region. Privacy.