Visual Studio license terms question

Question

Hi,

I work for an organization where I create scripts and still rely on simple message boxes of which I want to make more modern with WPF. Currently, the best tool to develop WPS-based windows is with Visual Studio, but I'm unsure whether I'm allowed to use the free/community edition or not. The work is nonprofit as it part of platform management where we sometimes need our own users to interact with a simple yes/no button and occasionally even more. So the question is, do I fall under the individual license or do I still need an enterprise license? Note that the company consists of more than 250 devices which according to the license terms is considered an enterprise, but I'm developing this alone solely for internal QoL purposes.

Answer 1

In my opinion, not a licensing expert, the license agreement for Community is to allow OSS and small companies to use it for free, especially if they are not making any money. But companies that are building software to sell need a Professional license.

In your case, while you work at a larger company, the software you're building isn't for sale nor is it being used by the entire enterprise. Therefore you could use Community for free as you're using it to build helper utilities for yourself. If you then started sharing these tools with the rest of your small IT shop then that would be OK but if your company started using it to support their business then you would have crossed the line and need to get a license.

Note that personally a large company should have no issues buying you a Pro license for VS. It isn't expensive and literally changes nothing other than licensing. However while you wait using Community would be fine. If the company is unwilling to buy a Pro license then I would question whether they are licensing compliant in other areas.