Visual Studio

Only on Windows

A full-featured integrated development environment (IDE) mainly for Windows. It is widely used for C++, C#, .NET, and Windows application development, offering powerful debugging, profiling, and native integration with MSVC and Windows SDKs.

Visual Studio Code

A lightweight, cross-platform code editor with an extension-based ecosystem. It supports many languages and tools via plugins and is popular for web development, scripting, and general-purpose programming rather than heavy IDE workflows.

XCode

Only on MacOS

Apple’s official IDE for macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS development. It includes compilers, SDKs, Interface Builder, and tools tightly integrated with Apple platforms and the Swift and Objective-C languages.

QtCreator

An IDE focused on Qt application development. It provides strong support for C++ and QML, with integrated UI design tools, cross-platform build systems, and seamless integration with the Qt framework.

Jetbrains CLion

A cross-platform C/C++ IDE by JetBrains. It emphasizes code analysis, refactoring, and modern CMake-based workflows, with deep understanding of C++ code and strong debugger integration.