The main advantage is the use of ReSharper and other add-ons but we need to make a convincing argument for the purchase of Visual Studio 2012 Professional. We are currently using Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows. It is quite good but is hard to switch from using the full Professional version in the past.

So far the team has compiled the following list:

1. Extract Interface function missing. Very useful for clean SOLID code.
2. No add-on support. Can’t install StyleCop or productivity tools. AnkhSvn, Spell checker, Productivity PowerTools, GhostDoc, Regex Editor, PowerCommands.
3. The exception assistant is limited in Express edition. This is a big annoyance. See http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/01/ive-given-up-on-visual-studio-express-2012-for-windows-desktop-heres-why/
4. Different tools provided by MS like certificate generation.
5. Possibility of create a Test project based on source code.

We do server development in C# so any web add-ons or anything else is useless.

The reason I am asking is I am sure that people have been in the same position. What approach did you use and can you think of additions or ammends to the above list?

Thanks,