Lazarus is a free cross-platform visual integrated development environment (IDE) for rapid application development (RAD) using the Free Pascal compiler, which supports dialects of Object Pascal, to varying degrees.
License: Open Source
Lazarus is an open-source, lightweight IDE suitable for cross-platform development with a focus on Pascal, while Microsoft Visual Studio is a comprehensive commercial IDE with extensive support for .NET and a wide range of programming languages. The choice between the two largely depends on the project's requirements, including language preference and desired features.