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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.

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.NET Development Services
September 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

"This solution can integrate with almost any functionality offered by Microsoft."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Visual Studio is the user interface."
"The stability is fine."
"The most valuable aspect of this solution is the integrated development environment. It also offers a very good integration with Microsoft Cloud."
"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."
"The product integrates well with Azure Cloud, and it supports a ton of languages."
"Windows Presentation Foundation or WPF is valuable. It's a tool to give clients a user interface for Windows applications. The summary for mobile applications is also very useful."
"Code management is a new and convenient feature."
More Microsoft Visual Studio pros
"The most valuable aspects of the solution are the user-friendly interface and easy workflow."
"Designer is easy to manage."
"The document filing system is the solution's most valuable feature. We have used SharePoint as an option for a document managed system, like Documentum and IBM Filenet."
"SharePoint has very good features for collaboration."
"The workflow is the solution's most valuable feature."
"The solution is scalable."
"When you have a group project and you want to share your document with your group members, the solution is very useful."
"The most valuable part of the solution is its ability to allow for a high degree of customization."
More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pros
 

Cons

"I would like to have more integration with other platforms and technologies."
"The stability of Microsoft Visual Studio could improve. There are times it hangs or stops working and I have to restart the program."
"There are some features that I have yet to explore and it would be helpful to have more information about what is available and how it works."
"Microsoft Visual Studio needs to improve integration."
"The initial setup could be more straightforward."
"Microsoft should add more visualization for analytical studies or research."
"There could be some features for YAML pipelines in Visual Studio."
"The interface could be more user friendly"
More Microsoft Visual Studio cons
"SharePoint Designer is not releasing a new version. Version 2013 was the latest version. Now in 2019, we are still using the biggest version. It doesn't work properly anymore. Sometimes we experience issues, but there is no new version."
"In the solution, if you have a case of accidental deletion, there's no restoration, which should have been there."
"I would like to be able to use SharePoint Designer without having to buy other third party programs."
"SharePoint Online should continue to integrate with other solutions."
"We'd like it if we got less frequent updates."
"The solution requires more web-based publishing. It would benefit from adding in more collaboration features as well."
"SharePoint Designer doesn't support the features that are available in the latest version of SharePoint Online."
"We would like to see an improvement in the stability and overall consistency of performance in this solution."
More SharePoint Designer [EOL] cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We purchased an expensive enterprise version of Microsoft Visual Studio."
"The solution is a free tool."
"We have an enterprise-level license. The cost is expensive for small to medium-sized organizations."
"The price of Microsoft Visual Studio could be lowered. For a single developer, it is approximately $1,000."
"While the enterprise version can be relatively expensive due to its comprehensive features, I find the license I currently possess to be reasonable, considering it includes the full suite without additional activations or charges."
"I use Microsoft Visual Studio's free version."
"I am using the free version of Microsoft Visual Studio."
"I am working with the open-source community version, which is free."
More Microsoft Visual Studio pricing and cost advice
"The cost of the solution is based on multiple factors such as the number of users, and any customization that may be required."
"The tool is free of cost."
"SharePoint Designer is less expensive than other solutions we have used. We purchased Office 365 which SharePoint comes with the package."
"SharePoint Designer's pricing is okay."
"Most of the time, our customer's license from Microsoft includes the cost of SharePoint. However, if you have to buy it then SharePoint is quite expensive."
"We are using an enterprise SharePoint Designer license."
"Priced per user per month with different plans to choose from."
"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."
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%
University
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
October 2025
Microsoft Visual Studio reportDownload Microsoft Visual Studio product report
Buyer's Guide
SharePoint Designer [EOL]
October 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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