Do I have to pay a fee to develop or deploy a .NET application?

Question

I have heard that .NET is not free and that I have to pay Microsoft if I develop a .NET application. Is this true? If so:

1. What do I have to pay?

Answer 1

You have heard incorrectly.

You can develop .NET apps for free. The compilers/SDK are free and can be downloaded from Microsoft. The framework/runtime is free for your users.

The higher end versions of Visual Studio are not free, but Express versions are available for free.