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Microsoft Visual Studio vs SharePoint Designer [EOL] comparison

Microsoft Visual Studio and SharePoint Designer [EOL] are both solutions in the .NET Development Services category. Additionally, 95% of Microsoft Visual Studio users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 82% of SharePoint Designer [EOL] users who would recommend it.
Microsoft Visual Studio
Read 92 Microsoft Visual Studio reviews
  • 780 Views
  • 780 Comparison Views
95% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between Microsoft Visual Studio and SharePoint Designer [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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.NET Development Services
August 2025
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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Visual Studio
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
92
Ranking in other categories
.NET Development Services (1st)
SharePoint Designer [EOL]
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
49
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Eitan Gold - PeerSpot reviewer
Test code efficiency improves with integrated debugger and automation
The test explorer is really important for us as it aids in testing, along with the regular debugger. Even though I forgot the term for it at the moment, there is an overall debugger tool within the IDE that is very effective. This comprehensive debugger tool does the job efficiently, making our work easier.
Read full review
Raphael Haroun Ikyagh - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers ability to directly share documents and highly stable
It's been stable for me. I haven't encountered any issues with the sites I've developed locally within the organization as long as the license remains valid. It's very stable. I haven't had any issues with outages or needing to republish content. It's always accessible to authorized users, so it's stable. The stability is almost a ten out of ten for me.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable aspect of this solution is the integrated development environment. It also offers a very good integration with Microsoft Cloud."
"The most valuable feature is how smoothly it runs."
"Microsoft Visual Studio helps my company improve efficiency in software development suites."
"It's a very easy-to-use product."
"It is a stable solution."
"We like Visual Studio because you can choose the different types of languages, like JavaScript. I think it's better than the other solutions I used."
"Visual Studio makes it easier to compile the code and shows me the errors upfront when coding. For example, it will tell me when a reference is incorrect or if there's a mistake within the function calls. I like how it highlights with a red underline so that I know there's an error at that point."
"It is definitely sophisticated and provides many out-of-the-box features. Going community has boosted all that."
More Microsoft Visual Studio pros
"Designer is easy to manage."
"We like the highly customizable websites that you can build."
"The scalability is excellent, and I rate it ten out of ten."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The most valuable features of SharePoint Designer are integration and collaboration capabilities, such as allowing more than one person to edit a file."
"We mostly used this solution for file storage and basic functions, etcetera."
"The support on offer is helpful."
"The product is very user-friendly."
More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pros
 

Cons

"The best advice I can give to others is to take training because it's so easy to use out of the box. However, you might tend to install it and maybe configure it improperly. You need to have some training."
"With the free version, we don't have that much support for Visual Studio. Its support is a little bit less and can be better."
"It would be great if they added some extra support for other languages that are available in the market and prepared it for the, let's say, crypto developers as we are going in the age of cryptocurrency."
"Microsoft Visual Studio can improve memory management, and packaging and reporting components."
"Could be improved with the ability to personalize the interface and development style and to edit extension requirements."
"The tool's interface should be more user-friendly."
"Visual Studio Team System needs to improve documentation."
"I would like to see more tools in the next release."
More Microsoft Visual Studio cons
"Exporting the whole SharePoint website is an issue."
"We'd like it if we got less frequent updates."
"SharePoint is too complex to install and maintain."
"The system can become slow which should be improved."
"The search function should improve in the solution."
"We would like to see an improvement in the stability and overall consistency of performance in this solution."
"The solution is not scalable at all."
"Sharepoint could improve the user interface to make it easier for everyone to navigate and use. That would be a big plus."
More SharePoint Designer [EOL] cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of using Microsoft Visual Studio monthly is approximately $300."
"We purchased an expensive enterprise version of Microsoft Visual Studio."
"Visual Studio Team System is expensive, but it is worth the money."
"You have to be a subscriber with a Visual Studio subscription to use the solution and the organization has to purchase a license that's linked to the account."
"We have an enterprise-level license. The cost is expensive for small to medium-sized organizations."
"The solution is a free tool."
"Licensing costs are reasonable."
"The price of Microsoft Visual Studio could be lowered. For a single developer, it is approximately $1,000."
More Microsoft Visual Studio pricing and cost advice
"SharePoint Online has a subscription-based model for payments and the price is based on user usage."
"The price is reasonable."
"The pricing is fair."
"There is no licensing cost for Designer—it's free."
"The tool's pricing is cheap."
"This solution is free of charge."
"SharePoint Designer's pricing is okay."
"SharePoint Designer is less expensive than other solutions we have used. We purchased Office 365 which SharePoint comes with the package."
More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Performing Arts
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Government
16%
Performing Arts
9%
Healthcare Company
9%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise43
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise21
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Visual Studio?
We can use different .NET features.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Visual Studio?
The pricing for Microsoft Visual Studio is favorable. While many open-source solutions are available, none offer the robustness of Visual Studio, which includes a Marketplace for creating different...
See all answers
What needs improvement with Microsoft Visual Studio?
Based on my experience and my colleagues' feedback, I believe a potential area of improvement for Microsoft Visual Studio could be incorporating more AI, as it makes things easier for us, and havin...
See all answers
What do you like most about SharePoint Designer?
It saved me big time once! My car got broken into and they took my laptop with all my files. But I didn't have to worry because everything was backed up on SharePoint. It was a lifesaver!
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SharePoint Designer?
I've leased Microsoft SharePoint Designer for the enterprise, not System Center. It's for private work, web development specifically.
See all answers
What needs improvement with SharePoint Designer?
For me, it's flexible enough for most things. But maybe they could improve the user interface to make it easier for everyone to navigate and use. That would be a big plus.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

No data available
No data available
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Visual Studio
August 2025
Microsoft Visual Studio reportDownload Microsoft Visual Studio product report
Buyer's Guide
SharePoint Designer [EOL]
August 2025
SharePoint Designer [EOL] reportDownload SharePoint Designer [EOL] product report
 

Also Known As

MS Visual Studio
No data available
 

Overview

Visual Studio.NET is the umbrella that represents the key pieces of the .NET platform delivered from Microsoft, including the .NET Framework, the recently announced .NET Core, and a shared common layer of packages, compilers and runtime. Read this .NET blog post about the evolution of the platform and the different pieces that make .NET 2015.
Microsoft

SharePoint Designer is the tool of choice for the rapid development of SharePoint applications. Using SharePoint Designer, advanced users and developers alike can rapidly create SharePoint solutions in response to business needs. Advanced users can compose no-code solutions that encompass a variety of common scenarios, from collaborative sites and web publishing to Line-Of-Business data integration, business intelligence solutions, and human workflows, leveraging the building blocks available in SharePoint in an easy to use environment.

Microsoft
 

Sample Customers

Knab, Hamburg Port Authority, Kecioren Municipality, National Instruments, Hamburg Port Authority, Government of Odisha, Kongsberg Maritime AS
Pyrotek Inc., ICA, Deliver Australia, Secretary of Economy of Mexico, Aegon, ABB Switzerland, Ascent Yarns Private Limited, Bakewell Biscuits Pvt Ltd, Hitachi Consulting
Buyer's Guide
.NET Development Services
August 2025
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