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Considering to develop a desktop application with Qt for Windows. It will be a free download application, but for a commecial SERVICE. (need an account with our commercial service to work).

I think we could use the Qt for Windows from Nokia (LGLP version) because its free app. But the lastest one version of Qt needs a C++ complier from Microsoft.

Which one?

Do I need to pay for an C++ compiler from Microsoft, or do they have a free version to use with Qt?

Reading info docs, googling and we still cann't understand what tools do I need.

Juanin
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If you want to use the Visual Studio compilers, you can download the free Windows SDK. The following link takes you to the SDK for Visual Studio 2008:

This includes all the C++ compilers and tools you need. (There is a more recent version available, but Visual Studio 2010 is not yet a "level 1 supported" platform for Qt.) We are using this on standalone build machines and it works fine.

Just a personal opinion, but we have found that using anything other than MSVC on Windows (for example, MinGW) causes a lot of problems. It is not that the other toolchains are bad, it is just that they are all treated as second-class citizens. We had lots of problems with third-party libraries not being able to build in MinGW or having nonexistent build instructions and having to do a lot of manual Makefile editing, etc. You are much more likely to have things "just work" if using MSVC.

For the most part (static linking), you cannot mix and match. You need to pick one toolchain and stick with it. If I were starting from scratch, I'd definitely go with MSVC.

Just our experience (we started with MinGW); your mileage may vary.

Dave Mateer
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No, you do not need to pay for anything.

The Microsoft toolchain is available for free as part of the Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit.

Additionally, the following article may also be of interest to you:

Sean Holm
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The alternative supported by Qt is MinGW. The runtime libraries are free from copyright, so you can do whatever you want with them.

It is basically the Windows counterpart of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) under Unix.

Pietro Lorefice
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