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CLion vs Visual Studio: catalog facts
CLion	Visual Studio
Freemium Free for non-commercial use. Commercial use requires a paid subscription.	Freemium Community edition is free; Professional and Enterprise are paid.
Windows, macOS, Linux	Windows
Understands CMake and compilation databases rather than guessing at includes Remote and embedded debugging built in	Complete toolset for .NET and C++ projects IntelliSense code completion and an integrated debugger
Commercial use requires a paid subscription Indexing large C++ codebases is slow	Large install compared with a plain code editor Professional and Enterprise editions are paid
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Closed source	Closed source
License not stated	License: Proprietary
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.