Since the .NET Framework SDK is free, is Visual Studio anything more than an IDE? If yes, do I need to buy Visual Studio to deploy my ASP.NET web application (written in C#)? I'm using MySQL for the database.
I'm a student that is going to graduate college soon, and I'm exploring technologies for a web application that I'm building for a startup.
Best Answer
No, you don't need Visual Studio to build web applications - you can use the SDK directly if you wish.
However, Visual Studio also exists in free Express editions. These are stripped-down single-language/single-platform versions of Visual Studio (for example, there is no support for plugins), but otherwise completely usable for building your applications.
In your case, you can use Visual Web Developer Express to work with ASP.NET applications.