NetBeans vs Visual Studio

NetBeans is a free, GPL-licensed IDE. It can run on any computer with a Java virtual machine. If a computer has a Java virtual machine (JVM), Netbeans can run on it. Netbeans can, therefore, run on a variety of operating systems such as Windows, *nix, and Mac OS. Being open source means that developers can contribute changes to the code to have the IDE better serve them.

Has built-in support for the most popular revision control systems

Supports synchronization with projects stored remotely through FTP or SFTP.

You can run Linux terminal inside the IDE.

Supports Symfony1, Symfony2,Yii2 & Zend frameworks.

There's a built-in local history that lets you compare code changes and revert to a specific revision. Helpful when source code file accidentally overwritten.

PHPUnit is a testing framework. You can create test classes, run and see the code coverage directly from IDE interface.

Git commits/local diff comparison is best

NetBeans can be extended beyond the basic tool that you get out of the box through community made custom plugins.

The most used composer commands can be done directly from IDE.

Netbeans not only debugs your code, and points out errors but also gives you hints on which sections of your code could be further optimized.

Supports Smarty Template Engine right out of the box.

NetBeans provides code completion and documentation for all Twig elements.

Supports documentation generation through ApiGen and PHPDoc.

Supports static code analysis with phpstan

ApiGen allows automatically generating documentation from specifically formatted comments. It's easy to use, supports traits, allows fuzzy searching for classes and highlighting docblocks using Markdown.

If a project type or a platform is available for C#, it's available in Visual Studio. Some IDEs and code editors may cover some project types, but Microsoft always starts with VS. If you work with a cross-platform technology like ASP.NET MVC, it matters less. If you work with Windows-only technologies like UWP or WPF, you have no choice really.

Community edition is almost Pro edition, with just a few exceptions. Unlike old Express editions, it supports plugins.

Supports many types of C, and java, as well as ruby and python.

The plugin development ecosystem is very mature and covers a lot of use cases. For example, it is often easy to find a plugin which allows you to have the keybindings of your preferred editor.

Visual Studio runs on Windows and macOS, so even if you develop on a Mac you can still develop with Visual Studio.

You can use too many programming lang. And you can select them! Like "I want to do this, not this".

Your Visual Studio Online account gives you a place to store your code, backlog, and other project data with no servers to deploy, configure, or manage.

Code productivity tools improve code editing experience greatly, provide static code analysis, refactorings, navigation etc. They are considered by many developers as essential.

Fast-paced development iteration from the Microsoft team, with new versions and fixes almost every week.

In agile development teams one really needs features such as product backlogs where you can assign features to team mates and track their progress on them. VS provides a web based interface for you to track your team's complete progress on the project.