Can someone explain Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010 pricing?

We're a small team of 4 developers. We currently have MSDN Professional subscriptions.

When 2010 comes out next month, will we need to buy new MSDN subscriptions?
-- Is it possible to upgrade from Professional to Premium?
-- Is TFS free with MSDN in 2010 for small teams?
-- If we stick with our current subscription, do we get TFS for free?
-- Can you have Professional and use TFS, or does it require Premium?
-- If, other than TFS, the only feature we want from Premium is Code Coverage, should we just stick with Professional and add a 3rd Party Code Coverage Tool?
-- Is there one that integrates nicely with TFS and Visual Studio?

NeedAgileNow

Posted 2010-03-04T16:51:56.543

Reputation:

Can Microsoft explain it ? – None – 2010-03-04T16:57:17.383

That's funny, I was just about to suggest you ask this at stackoverflow :-) – Gabe Moothart – 2010-03-04T17:12:28.387

Answers

Visual Studio 2010 comes in three tiers, each costing a good chunk more:

Professional Edition
Premium Edition
Ultimate Edition

There is no longer a Standard Edition. There will still be the hobbled Express Edition.

With your Professional MSDN subscription, you will automatically get the Professional edition of VS 2010 when it comes out. You can upgrade to Premium at any point thereafter of course. However, what you want to do is upgrade your msdn subscription now to Premium. Then you will get the Premium VS 2010.

I really want to stress this. Everyone pay attention. You need to upgrade to MSDN Premium before VS 2010 comes out. That is, before March 22, 2010. If you do you will get a fantastic automatic upgrade to VS2010 Premium Edition. It's much cheaper to upgrade your MSDN subscription now than to wait.

VSTS (Visual Studio Team System) add-ons (Developer Edition, Tester Edition, etc.) no longer exist in 2010. All the VSTS stuff is part of Visual Studio Premium. The Premium Edition has almost all the great stuff now in VSTS. You'll have the code metrics, unit testing goodies (include code coverage), and the fantastic data dude stuff. (The higher end Ultimate Edition has a few extra testing stuff. Web load testing I think.)

Team Foundation Server is included in your MSDN Subscription with either VS2010 Professional or Premium.

So, you guys are already good for TFS 2010. What upgrading to MSDN Premium now will give you is all the stuff currently in the VSTS add-ons. There is a lot of good stuff there, and it's getting better in 2010. The versioning and deployment contained in the data dude stuff is really great.

Patrick Karcher

Posted 2010-03-04T16:51:56.543

Reputation: 171

Since we already have professional (with 2008 on the latest set of discs), we'll automatically get 2010 when it's released? And you're advising to upgrade now because it's cheaper to do so right now, and it will be more expensive after the release of 2010? – None – 2010-03-04T16:58:15.047

If you renew your subscription now, you'll get a free upgrade if I understand correctly. – None – 2010-03-04T17:01:02.500

It looks like it cost $2,000 to upgrade from Pro to Premium? – None – 2010-03-04T17:02:13.200

@Joel: a free upgrade from Pro to Premium, or from 2008 to 2010? Sorry, Microsoft has me completely confused. – None – 2010-03-04T17:02:55.587

The only item I would remove is the release date as it has not been confirmed. There wil be the marketing release but the product release may only follow later. Reading this you may be building the wrong impression and expectation. – BinaryMisfit – 2010-03-04T17:29:15.130

Check out http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/msdn/default.mspx#roadmap . Go to the bottom and you'll see about upgrading your license.

– Patrick Karcher – 2010-03-04T17:33:56.383

@Diago That release data could change, true, but to get good deal a developer or company should not take a chance. People should upgrade/get before March 22. There is a chance that late-comers might still get the deal. – Patrick Karcher – 2010-03-04T17:51:34.297

@Patrick. If you insist. I am just highlighting that the release date has not been confirmed, except for the marketing release. With Sql Server Microsoft did not allow orders until the product was released even though marketing launched it. Therefore until the official product is available users will still be able to buy the old version, and normally for 2 months after the release to MSDN users can still order the older version. – BinaryMisfit – 2010-03-04T18:37:09.007

I'm the original poster, but I can't add a comment or edit my original post.

How much does it cost to upgrade from Pro to Premium right now? Where can I do that? Why does it have to be so confusing?

Donald Hughes

Posted 2010-03-04T16:51:56.543

Reputation: 273

2Looks like you need to associate your accounts so that the question can be attached to your username here. You can do that by going to the user page, click on the "accounts" tab, and associate your accounts there. – Jared Harley – 2010-03-04T17:24:57.967

You have to get that from microsoft directly I think, once you've bought it. Check out http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/msdn/default.mspx#roadmap and see the link at the bottom.

– Patrick Karcher – 2010-03-04T17:37:19.013

It is a confusing situation, isn't it? Here is essentially what I have gleaned from docu on MSDN.

VS2008 Pro + MSDN Pro -> VS2010 Pro + MSDN
VS2008 Pro + MSDN Premium -> VS2010 Premium + MSDN
VS2008 Team System + MSDN Premium -> VS2010 Ultimate + MSDN
VS2008 Team Suite + MSDN Premium -> VS2010 Ultimate + MSDN

All of the above end results include TFS 2010.

If your current MSDN subscription is still active at the time VS2010 is released, the subscription will stay current, for whatever time is left of the current subscription.

The middle two bullet points indicate free upgrades for VS. Essentially, if you have VS2008 with an MSDN Premium subscription, you'll get access to the next level of VS2010. Again, you must have at least a current MSDN Premium subscription for the free upgrade. No free upgrade for a Pro MSDN, just the rollover to VS2010 Pro.

If you want to take advantage of the step up offer, you should upgrade your MSDN Pro subscriptions to Premium real soon. The pricing indicates that upgrading to MSDN Premium now will be cheaper than upgrading to VS Premium later.

Grant Palin

Posted 2010-03-04T16:51:56.543

Reputation: 1 102