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So far all the sites I have made have been in PHP, I'm thinking about learning C# but before I do I need to know if one needs to buy licensing if deploying a site or app written in C#. I assume since it was developed by Microsoft that there might be some propitiatory about it. PHP being open course I never had to worry about this.

So does one need a license, if so where are the rates?

pnuts
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about licensing or legal issues, not programming or software development. [See here](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/274963/questions-about-licensing/274964#274964) and [here](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/139804/can-licensing-questions-ever-be-on-topic) for details, and the [help] for more. – JasonMArcher Jun 12 '15 at 22:24

9 Answers9

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Description

No, you don't need a license for c#. Maybe you need one for the IDE you want to use. But there are some free and opensource IDE's out where.

You can use MonoDevelop, Webmatrix, Visual Studio Express but i suggest SharpDevelop, its open source.

sharpDevelop (short for SharpDevelop) is a free IDE for C#, VB.NET and Boo projects on Microsoft's .NET platform. It is open-source, and you can download both sourcecode and executables from this site. In addition, you can find the latest information and changes on #develop, as well as get in touch with the team in the forum.

More Information

Update

In case of Webapplications, you need a Windows license too use IIS (Internet Information Server, Microsofts Webserver). It is also possible to run .NET on Linux, check out the Mono Project if you are interested in.

Community
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dknaack
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  • Can't imagine why someone downvoted this answer, It's very thorough. Hopefully my upvote will help to offset it. – apiguy Jan 09 '12 at 17:32
  • Yes it did, thx. I think this would come later by other users too. But thank you to speed up! – dknaack Jan 09 '12 at 17:34
  • I'm giving you +1 so no worries. :) But, SharpDevelop, come on. That is not a good IDE. For this guy, VS Express or WebMatrix is the best bet since its FREE. Open source is good when you are extending something but not as a consumer app necessarily. Open source does not make it good, clearly in this example its not. – King Friday Jan 09 '12 at 17:35
  • @kitgui.com I think the same, but i don't know if he want to build commericial applications. Im sure this is not allowed using the express versions. Do you know if it is allowed in WebMatrix ? btw. ive use VS 2010 Ultimate ;) – dknaack Jan 09 '12 at 17:38
  • Absolutely its free. I'm not a Microsoft lover or hater but I do feel Microsoft is getting unnecessarily kicked at times in terms of its perception of being money hungry. You can freely use it commercially in terms of the Express versions. There is a "register" button on it which gives you the right to use in commercial web/apps. I've been doing business for years now like this for huge ecommerce sites that run off of tiny linq c# code bases that are super quick (as well as PHP and Node.js) – King Friday Jan 09 '12 at 17:41
  • right @kitgui.com i think microsoft isnt evil anymore ;) They doing great stuff and open source stuff (nuget for example) and they awesome guys like scott hanselman there are work for microsoft but don't married with them. Microsoft is on a good way for developers. Iam looking forward for Windows 8, the .NET Framework in general and hopefully Windows Phone. – dknaack Jan 09 '12 at 17:44
  • Yes Nuget is the "sh.." and Scott Hanselman is a very cool dude. I worked at the banking web app factory he was CTO of for a year. Nice dude. – King Friday Jan 09 '12 at 17:50
  • You work with him directly ? He is awesome, and he shares so much. – dknaack Jan 09 '12 at 17:51
  • We were not on the same code line. I was doing monkey front ends and he was leading the security teams and doing framework stuff. But I got paid for that big time either way. Doing business now full time so screw the corporate work life. – King Friday Jan 09 '12 at 18:07
  • Interesting, thanks! Have a nice day! – dknaack Jan 09 '12 at 18:09
  • @dknaack - One is free to use Express editions for commercial software - well covered in http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1420710/can-i-produce-commercial-code-with-visual-studio-express-editions . – Alexei Levenkov Jan 09 '12 at 18:48
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No, you simply need a webserver running IIS for a web app.

Rory Harvey
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You do not need a license. There is free versions of the Visual Studio IDE on Microsofts website http://www.microsoft.com/express as well as open source builds of earlier frameworks like Mono http://www.mono-project.com.

You can even just download the SDK itself .Net Framework 2.0 and write C# from scatch and compile but that has always been a silly way to develop C# in my eyes when the tools are so great.

All you need to run a c# desktop app is the Framework installed or c# website you will need IIS.

AdamV
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You do not need a license for deploying a site or building an application in C#. You need to purchase the required software based on your requirements from Microsoft.

In order to write applications you would use something called VS.NET IDE and you need to purchase license for them based on the edition you would like. Some info on VS.NET is avaiable at the following link.

In order to host them on IIS if you have a OS with IIS installed that should be enough.

Rajesh
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You can use C# WITHOUT paying for its use ..

Standard ECMA-334 C# Language Specification 4th edition (June 2006) http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-334.htm

"Microsoft has relinquished proprietary rights to "control" C# to a body that will consider suggested changes properly submitted by any entity .. "

Ravi Ram
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Development in C# does not require any licenses but the Visual Studio IDE and IIS Hosting does cost a considerable amount more than an open-platform.

JConstantine
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    Visual Studio Express is completely free and very suitable for .NET development: http://www.microsoft.com/express as is the excellent WebMatrix toolkit for web application development: http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/ – apiguy Jan 09 '12 at 17:31
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No. :)

Its all free. Use Visual Web Developer Express and you can use any cheap windows hosting provider out there. See www.asp.net for all the info beginners need.

PHP is great for sure but the .NET IDEs are so easy to develop in, it does make PHP seem hard after you use the IDEs for Visual Studio and the express versions.

For you I would recommend going the "Matrix" route as that will be the easiest ramp up from PHP. After that if you want you could try MVC. MVC to me isn't all its cracked up to be because routing is too complex for something so trivially simple to do with URL Rewrite similar to modrewrite in PHP.

King Friday
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Without looking to deep into this, for basic tools and libraries, the answer is no. However C# is inherently Mircosoft and even through they have licence and right sand all that, they would really like to see more developers using their tools. Now if you are making something big and proprietary with it, I would examine this further, especially if it is something you would think they would be 'interested' in adding to their 'portfolio' (but not many of us develop stuff like that).

Frank Tudor
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The easiest way would be to get MS Visual Web Developer 2010 Express, which can be found here.

Initially this should be enough to get you going. If you decide you like the environment you may want to spend $150 for the Standard edition or $400 for Professional. From my experience few people come up with the money to buy the more expensive editions such as Enterprise.

D-Mac
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