Visual Basic was once the most popular programming language in the world, and today, most developers couldn’t tell you the last time they used it. Its rise and fall is one of the most interesting stories in software history.
Here at DevelopersDex, we build and maintain web applications every day. Our team knows how much your language selection can influence long-term outcomes of your apps.
In this article, we’ll explore what Visual Basic (VB) was and how it evolved over the years. We’ll also examine the reasons behind its decline and discuss whether it’s still worth learning in 2026.
Ready? Let’s get into it.
Visual Basic is an event-driven programming language. Microsoft released it in 1991 for building Windows applications. It grew out of a much older language called BASIC, which had been around since the mid-1960s.
What made VB different from everything else at the time was how little code you actually needed to write to build something functional.
Here’s a breakdown of what Visual Basic is at its core:
The legacy of VB remains visible in many modern low-code and rapid application development platforms.
Three features set Visual Basic apart from its contemporaries: the drag-and-drop form designer, event-driven programming, and an integrated development environment (IDE). Even a beginner could assemble a working interface in an afternoon without touching a single line of layout code.
We’ll now explain these features.
The drag-and-drop interface allowed developers to place graphical elements directly onto a form without writing code. You’d pull a button, text box, or dropdown from the toolbox and position it wherever you needed it on the screen.
The form designer handled the visual structure automatically from there. You could set default values and configure properties through a dedicated properties window, all without leaving the design surface. It made prototyping so quick.
What used to take days of C++ layout code took VB developers a couple of hours.
Architecture Note: The form designer encouraged developers to think in terms of components rather than pixels. This mindset later became central to frameworks like WinForms, WPF, React, and Flutter.
Event-driven programming runs code only when a user action occurs, rather than running top to bottom like traditional procedural code. It’s a fundamentally different way of thinking about how a program behaves.
Specifically, every button, text box, and form element in VB could have its own event procedures. For example, clicking a button would trigger a specific block of code, while typing into a field would trigger a different block in response to the keystroke.
Each object owned its own behaviour, which kept codebases organised and easy to follow. Honestly, that model is so widespread now that it’s easy to forget how much VB did to popularise it.
The Visual Basic IDE included a project explorer, toolbox, and form designer, which were inside a single integrated development environment. Everything a developer needed to write, organise, and test a VB application was in one place.
And the project window kept all files, forms, and modules visible at a glance. This feature made handling larger applications far less painful than juggling separate files in a text editor (it felt surprisingly modern for its time).
Visual Studio eventually became the primary home for VB development and expanded those tools considerably as the language matured. The IDE was the reason most developers working through the 1990s decided to stick with VB.
Microsoft Visual Basic went through seven major releases from 1991 to 2002, each expanding what developers could build on Windows. The early versions were fairly limited, but Microsoft iterated quickly. And by the late 1990s, VB had grown into something far more powerful than its origins suggested.
The table below will give you an idea of all the changes over time:
| Version | Release Year | Key Development |
| VB 1.0 | 1991 | First Windows release; basic form designer introduced |
| VB 2.0 | 1992 | Improved IDE speed and programming environment |
| VB 3.0 | 1993 | Database engine added; Microsoft Access support |
| VB 4.0 | 1995 | First 32-bit support; classes introduced |
| VB 5.0 | 1997 | Native code compilation; 32-bit Windows only |
| VB 6.0 | 1998 | Web forms support; peak of VB dominance |
| VB.NET | 2002 | Full .NET rewrite; object-oriented; breaking changes from classic VB |
VB 6.0 was at the height of its popularity in 1998. Two-thirds of all Windows business application programming was done in Visual Basic language by that point. In fact, it had nearly 3.5 million developers worldwide at that time (well ahead of C++ in terms of developer adoption).
However, VB.NET‘s release in 2002 marked a major turning point. Microsoft redesigned Visual Basic around the .NET Framework and introduced full object-oriented programming.
It was a necessary technical step, but it fractured the developer community in ways that took years to fully surface. We’ll talk about it next.
VB.NET broke backward compatibility with classic VB, which gave developers no reliable path to move their existing code forward. That single decision did real damage to VB’s momentum, as the language with millions of loyal developers suddenly felt like a dead end.
Let’s get into more detail about these situations that initiated the decline of VB.
When VB.NET broke backwards compatibility, every application built before 2002 was effectively stranded. The developer community started calling the new language Visual Fred (a name that captured exactly how they felt).
The term represented the feelings of the developer that whatever this new thing was, it wasn’t Visual Basic. In short, the syntax had changed, the philosophy had changed, and the familiar ease of classic VB was gone.
That said, Microsoft offered a migration wizard to help developers port their code to solve the issue. In practice, it handled only the simplest cases and left the hard work to the developer anyway.
Most .NET Framework libraries were written in C#, which gave it a structural advantage from the moment .NET launched. Developers building new applications naturally gravitated toward the language with the most documentation, the most examples, and the most tooling support.
Microsoft’s investment followed that same direction. C# received new features, language updates, and community resources at a pace VB couldn’t match.
And by 2020, Microsoft officially announced that it no longer planned to evolve Visual Basic as a language. C# and F# became Microsoft’s primary focus for language development, while Visual Basic was still supported but largely frozen in terms of new features.
One of the biggest reasons behind VB’s decline is that it couldn’t adapt to modern web frameworks or cross-platform mobile development. While the industry moved toward building for browsers and smartphones through the 2000s and 2010s, Visual Basic remained closely tied to traditional Windows desktop applications.
During that period, developers adopted languages that better matched the needs of web applications. PHP, Python, and eventually JavaScript filled roles that Visual Basic couldn’t effectively serve.
More specifically, full-stack developers needed tools that worked across Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. But Visual Basic was built for one platform, in one era, for one type of application. That limitation became impossible to ignore as the rest of the industry moved on.
Technology Perspective: A language’s future often depends less on its syntax and more on the ecosystems it can reach.
Visual Basic is still in active use today, primarily through VBA in Microsoft Office and legacy business systems that have not yet migrated. It’s far from the dominant force it was in the 1990s, but it hasn’t disappeared either. Millions of lines of VB code are still running in production environments right now.
Even today, you can still find Visual Basic in 5 main areas:
The language’s legacy now rests less on new development and more on the enduring value of the software already in production.
C# replaced Visual Basic for most .NET development, but the broader market evolved differently. Various languages absorbed different parts of Visual Basic’s user base as software development shifted toward new platforms and workloads.
How about we take a closer look at the replacements for VB?
C# runs on .NET and supports Windows application development and web applications equally. It shares VB’s event-driven programming model, so the mental shift for classic VB developers wasn’t as steep as moving to something like Java or Python.
What C # offered that VB couldn’t was room to grow. Microsoft built the entire .NET ecosystem around it, which meant better documentation, richer libraries, and stronger community support from the start.
The move to C# required developers to learn new syntax, but the familiar Visual Studio environment reduced much of the friction.
Do you know that Python replaced VB for automating repetitive tasks across business and personal use? Where VBA once handled spreadsheet automation and internal scripting, Python now does that work across many environments and with fewer limitations.
The big difference is portability. VB was tied entirely to Windows, while Python runs across Windows, Mac, and Linux without modification. That’s important in modern businesses that are running mixed infrastructure.
It’s also worth noting just how dominant Python has become. According to the Stack Overflow 2025 Developer Survey, Python saw a seven percentage point increase in adoption from 2024 to 2025 alone. This change was driven largely by its role in AI, data science, and back-end development.
Good to Know: Many developers first learn Python for automation, but continue using it throughout their careers because the language extends into so many other fields.
JavaScript (JS) became the standard language for creating web-based applications and web forms. It handles both front-end interfaces and server-side logic through Node.js, which makes it genuinely full-stack in a way VB never was.
Plus, unlike VB, JavaScript runs natively across every browser and operating system without any additional configuration. This cross-platform reach made JS the default choice for web developers as the internet matured through the 2000s (it changed how software reached users).
VB skills are still useful if you maintain legacy systems, support VBA-based Office workflows, or work in industries like finance and healthcare. However, the situation is very different for new developers because better options are available for most modern projects.
Let’s find out more about whether you should learn VB today.
As we mentioned earlier, VB is still a powerful tool for maintaining legacy systems in regulated industries. Healthcare, finance, and governments are still running VB6 applications that nobody can afford to shut down overnight. Those systems need developers who understand the codebase.
VBA is a similar story. Knowing how to write and debug VBA code inside Excel or Word is a genuinely useful skill in any organisation running Office-heavy workflows. Many finance teams and operations departments run critical processes through spreadsheet macros that haven’t changed in years.
That knowledge can lead to job opportunities in niche support and maintenance roles, even if those roles aren’t glamorous.
New developers should prioritise C#, Python, or JavaScript over Visual Basic programming. The job pool for VB skills is narrow and shrinking, while demand for those three languages continues to grow across almost every industry.
And the practical gap is pretty noticeable. These languages offer larger communities, better tooling, more learning resources, and far stronger career trajectories than VB can offer in 2026.
Industry Reality: Technology careers tend to reward future relevance more than past popularity.
Visual Basic shaped how an entire generation learned to build software. It made Windows development accessible to millions of people who had no business writing code. And for a decade and a half, it was the most widely used programming language in the world.
Unfortunately, that era is over. VB still runs in legacy systems and Office environments, but it isn’t a language you’d build a career on today.
If you’re ready to take the next step, DevelopersDex can help you find the right path forward. Browse our articles to learn new skills, compare technologies, and make informed career decisions.
Below are answers to some commonly asked questions that people often ask about VB.
Yes. Many organisations connect legacy Visual Basic applications to services written in other languages through APIs, databases, and integration layers rather than rebuilding entire systems.
Yes. VBScript was widely used with Classic ASP to build server side scripting programs before ASP.NET and newer web frameworks became popular.
Visual Basic improved application creation by reducing technical barriers. It allowed departments to build custom tools without large development budgets.
Some educators use older VB projects to teach programming concepts and software design fundamentals before introducing more complex technologies.
Unlike many command line development tools of its era, Visual Basic provided visual design features that reduced the need to build interfaces entirely through code.
Yes. Developers could build a user interface while managing calculations, validation rules, and data processing within the same project.
Yes. Developers using VB.NET could create web forms through ASP.NET for internal business systems and database-driven applications.
The graphical user interface model allowed developers to drop elements onto forms visually, reducing manual layout work and speeding up project delivery.
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