Can I use Visual Studio Community alongside Professional in a company?

Question

I'm not sure if I understand the license agreement for Visual Studio Community correctly.

I know that in our case, up to five users can use Community. But does that mean, that these five users can use it WHILE all other employees use professional? Or do all employees have to use Professional, if a company has more than five employees?

Answer 1

Hello @Josma,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.

I recommend directly calling 1-800-426-9400, Monday through Friday, 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. (Pacific Time) to speak to a Microsoft licensing specialist and double confirm this issue.

The license terms point that

If none of the above apply, and you are also not an enterprise (defined below), then up to 5 of your individual users can use the software concurrently to develop and test your applications.

The license term mentions "up to 5 …", so it should also apply to the organization which includes more than 5 developers. However, the license term doesn’t indicate whether these 5 users can use VS Community to develop the apps in parallel with other developers using VS Professional edition. It’s recommended to double confirm with license specialist.

Sincerely,

Tianyu

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Answer 2

I spoke to the Visual Studio Subscriptions Team and they told me that the licensing terms and conditions regulate the usage of Visual Studio Community within the organization only. It means that the usage of other subscriptions (Professional or Enterprise) does not influence the usage of VS Community.

So, my company can use 5 Community licenses alongside other editions, in our case 3 Professional licenses.