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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
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  • 823 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.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, FourJs, Cognosys Inc Hardened Images and others in .NET Development Services.

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.NET Development Services
September 2025
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Helped 869,771 peers since 2012

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 features of Microsoft Visual Studio are debugging and IntelliSense."
"The tool is good for interactive testing. It has good integrations and works well for remote services. The product also has features for collaborative work where it allows others to control my screen. It has a good community for every language."
"We use the solution to develop applications."
"The scalability of Microsoft Visual Studio is good."
"We have no issues with scaling."
"The most valuable feature is the integration with different databases."
"It is convenient to have all the development tools in one interface."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Visual Studio is how easy it is to access all the basic templates for development. There are so many features you get with Visual Studio that it's really helpful for the deployment, the development, and the intelligence behind it."
More Microsoft Visual Studio pros
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"When you have a group project and you want to share your document with your group members, the solution is very useful."
"The new version doesn't have the option to view data, but it has other, better features though."
"If you're working in a communication channel team, SharePoint Designer is a great solution because it helps to have some customized solutions in terms of communication and to create web experiences for external teams."
"We used SharePoint Designer 2013 widely for data mining, exploring the content, and editing. Those are the main features that you would need to use SharePoint Designer for."
"The most valuable part of the solution is its ability to allow for a high degree of customization."
"The solution tightly integrates with all other collaboration tools."
"The basic functionality the solution makes it easy to share documents or information with the team."
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."
"You do need to do some training in order to really take advantage of the solution."
"We'd like the solution to be more secure."
"Its setup process could be more straightforward."
"It has a ton of options and that sometimes can become very, very overwhelming for a new person, a new developer."
"The tool's interface should be more user-friendly."
"The stability of Microsoft Visual Studio could improve. There are times it hangs or stops working and I have to restart the program."
"For Visual Studio, the only challenge I've faced is referencing any package or new concept I'm trying to debug or run."
More Microsoft Visual Studio cons
"If you compare the workflow with other engines like Olympus and K2, it is very complicated to create a workflow."
"I want the tool to be more approachable to people. I would like to see AI integration with the tool's future versions."
"Designer is easy to manage."
"The initial setup depends on company specifics. So, it's a bit complex."
"I would like to be able to use SharePoint Designer without having to buy other third party programs."
"Adding guest users is a bit difficult on SharePoint."
"SharePoint does not have enough resources to cover the security part."
"The record management and digital signature sides need improvement because we still need to rely on other third-party tools."
More SharePoint Designer [EOL] cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price could be better."
"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."
"Microsoft Visual Studio is a free product."
"I use the open-source version of Microsoft Visual Studio."
"There's a community edition that is absolutely free to use. It's pretty good."
"Microsoft Visual Studio is not expensive. Its licensing costs are expensive."
"We purchased an expensive enterprise version of Microsoft Visual Studio."
"The solution is a free tool."
More Microsoft Visual Studio pricing and cost advice
"SharePoint Designer is a free product. It's SharePoint that needs a license, not SharePoint Designer."
"The tool's pricing is cheap."
"The pricing is fair."
"This solution is free of charge."
"The entire package is expensive. There is no extra cost in addition to the standard license."
"I've never paid for SharePoint Designer. What I paid for, is the SharePoint license, the cava, and then the client accesses the line fee."
"The cost of the license is based on the size of the user base."
"I use Macintosh devices, and because this solution is not available in the Apple Ecosystem I use it because it is cost-effective."
More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Performing Arts
17%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
No data available
 

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