Python Tools for Visual Studio Now on GitHub (opens in new tab)

There's a lot of common ground feature-wise, but both also have their strong points. PyCharm's biggest one is that it's cross-platform, but also good integration with GAE and AWS, and neat features such as Cython editing. PTVS, on the other hand, is Windows-only, but has neat stuff like debugging Python and C++ side by side: https://github.com/Microsoft/ptvs/wiki/Mixed-Mode-Debugging

From personal experience, I've used both I have to say:

Python Tools for Visual Studio is one of Microsoft's "best kept secrets" is how I describe it. I would say they're both exactly well-built solutions. If you have Visual Studio I highly recommend you give it a shot, it's really well defined in my opinion. It also has a plethora of features[1]. However, when I'm on Linux I usually use PyCharm.

[1] https://github.com/Microsoft/PTVS/wiki/Features-Matrix

The problem with this is that it's an add-on to a bloated behemoth that takes 10 GB and a reboot to install and nearly that much memory to run. PyCharm has a lot going for it simply by being not that.

Visual Studio works fine in a VM. I've used it in VMware and Parallels. I like the overall integration better in Parallels, but either one will do.

Visual Studio Code is a completely different product that happens to (confusingly!) share the same name.

I use Visual Studio (2010 & 2013) in VirtualBox on a customized MacBook Pro (with SSD) for developing Windows Phone applications as a hobby. It runs very well and fast and it is usable on a daily basis. On an hard disk drive it was a bit too slow for being confortable.

But there are also some annoying VM freezings related to the USB port, which sometimes forces me to force quite the VM with the task manager because even VirtualBox can't terminate the instance.

VS2013 Community is really VS2013 Professional with different licensing. Any VS2013 Professional addon will also work in VS2013 Community.

I don't know the answer to this question, but my understanding is that you don't need a paid version of Visual Studio

it does. in fact, that is the default recommendation, ie PTVS installed into Community Edition:

https://github.com/Microsoft/PTVS/wiki/PTVS-Installation