I am trying to write a web application using ASP.NET MVC. I prefer C# as the programming language.
Which IDE is better to use for this purpose? Visual Studio or Visual Web Developer?
What are the features of the IDEs? What are the benefits of using one over the other?
Thanks in advance.
As far as I understand, Visual Web Developer (VWD) is simply a free version of the Visual Studio components necessary to develop web based solutions.
Here is a list of features missing from VWD that you get in a Professional edition of Visual Studio 2008 (VS2008). In short, VWD Express 2005
is Not Extensibile with other add-ons or third party tools
Only supports Web site projects (2005). You cannot add a Class Library project or a Web Controls Library project to the solution.
UPDATED - VWD 2008 SP1 also allows Web Application and Class Library Projects in the solution.
Lacks the ability to combine Source Code Control
has no Accessibility checker
Lacks ability for automatic generation of resources for localization
Cannot attach debugger to a process
has no Native code debugging
The obvious advantage of VWD over VS2008 is that it is free and if you can work smart with it given the missing features, it may be the more pragmatic option for you. If those are features that you can't live without, VS2008 may be a wise investment - you also get all of the features missing from other Express products (Visual Basic 2008, Visual C# 2008, etc).
Take a look at MSDN's comparison chart for Visual Studio 2005. I can't find 2008's but would suspect it to be very similar.
Visual Studio will allow you to integerate with Source control and attached debugging to IIS processes.
As a lone developer knocking up some pure ASP.NET-MVC application then Web Developer would do, for serious work you really need studio.
I think you also lack the ability to publish a site without visual studio, you can certainly run a website, but it won't build the binaries for release, with web developer you have to publish the source to iis.