Visual Studio 2013 Professional with TFS 2013 Express

Question

I've done some research and found out that TFS 2013 has some limitations like no reporting, single server deployment, 5 devs etc. But I wonder if there would be any problem with using VS 2013 Pro with TFS 2013 Express.

To sum up :

Is there any problem with one of these two setups ? :

• VS 2013 Pro (or Ultimate) - TFS 2013 Express - SQL Server Express
• VS 2013 Community - TFS 2013 Express - SQL Server Express

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

TFS is only limited to no reporting when you use SQL express which does not support those features.

If you have even a single MSDN licence they you are licenced to install TFS with SQL standard. That would give you the reporting capabilities as well.

Single server is also only a limitation of the free (without MSDN) version of TFS.

You can have as many MSDN licenced users AND 5 included users.

I do not believe that there are any issues with either configuration. However I would recommend that you use VSO indeed as you get TFS without having to use a server.

Answer 2

There is no relation between the "Express" name after Visual Studio and TFS. Visual Studio Express works perfectly fine with TFS Express as well as the fully licensed version of TFS and vice versa.

As Martin already mentions, if you have an MSDN subscription, you already have a full license to install and run Team Foundation Server.

If you don't have an MSDN subscription and do not own a Retail version of TFS, you can still use the free Express edition with a few limitations:

• No Sharepoint integration
• No report server integration
• Limited in the number of users
• Only a single server installation supported

You can always upgrade your Express installation to the full version at a later point in time.

Instead of the Express version, you should indeed consider visual-studio-online , while this also has a few limitations:

• No reporting
• No sharepoint integration

It has a number of advantages as well:

• Much less administration required
• Always up to date with the latest version
• Online Build Service available
• Integration into Azure