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Microsoft Visual Studio vs SharePoint Designer comparison

Microsoft Visual Studio and SharePoint Designer are both solutions in the .NET Development Services category. Microsoft Visual Studio is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.5, while SharePoint Designer is ranked #2 with an average rating of 7.9. Microsoft Visual Studio holds a 15.1% mindshare in NDS, compared to SharePoint Designer’s 11.2% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Microsoft Visual Studio users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 82% of SharePoint Designer users who would recommend it.
Microsoft Visual Studio
Read 88 Microsoft Visual Studio reviews
  • 663 Views
  • 196 Comparison Views
95% willing to recommend
SharePoint Designer
Read 49 SharePoint Designer reviews
  • 544 Views
  • 162 Comparison Views
82% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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

Find out in this report how the two .NET Development Services solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

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To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer Report (Updated: April 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer
April 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
Ranking in .NET Development Services
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SharePoint Designer
Ranking in .NET Development Services
2nd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
49
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the .NET Development Services category, the mindshare of Microsoft Visual Studio is 15.1%, down from 22.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SharePoint Designer is 11.2%, down from 19.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
.NET Development Services
 

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 ( /categories/ide ) that is very effective. This comprehensive debugger tool does the job efficiently, making our work easier.
Read full review
Vivek Vaibhav - PeerSpot reviewer
Intuitive, customizable, and reliable
Exporting the whole SharePoint website is an issue. For example, let's say I want to deploy it in the client environment. Right now, this was based on our own company's environment and if I wanted to deploy that onto the client's environment. To do this, I will have to recreate everything from scratch, which takes a lot of time. There should be a way somewhere where I can download the custom designs I have made and upload them to the client servers so that we can configure them on their servers. Secondly, when you have uploaded data, for example, from an Excel spreadsheet, you download it in the form of a dot IQY file. This IQY file is a bit tough to work with as it's a server-side file. If there was any option where you could just download the flat files and work with them, that would have been great.
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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The installation of the solution is easy."
"The feature I find most valuable is the fact that it's broad-spectrum, so it can be used for a wide variety of technologies."
"It is easy to integrate with GitHub. We integrate with GitHub, and we deploy our solution on our local system. We need this integration for pushing our code. When we were working with Eclipse, we had to write everything in the command prompt, which is a little bit tricky, whereas Visual Studio is very much UI-based and simple. So, it's very easy to integrate GitHub with Visual Studio. It is much easier than Eclipse."
"It's pretty prevalent."
"I like that it works fine and that it performs better than competing products. I'm very happy with Microsoft Visual Studio."
"The system can efficiently manage the databases."
"I have found that it is scalable."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Visual Studio is its integration with Azure DevOps."
More Microsoft Visual Studio pros
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"We mostly used this solution for file storage and basic functions, etcetera."
"I find the document management and search of SharePoint the most valuable features."
"One of the most valuable features is that it's free. If you have SharePoint and you want to do some branding, then the only tool available is SharePoint Designer. Microsoft gives the portal, the content management system, and, on top of that, it gives you Designer. So we don't have a choice, but Designer is good."
"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 aspects of the solution are the user-friendly interface and easy workflow."
"We appreciate the fact that this solution can provide us with an on-premises version, as due to our geographical location, we are not able to use cloud-based tools."
"We like that the interface is very user-friendly making it easy to use."
More SharePoint Designer pros
 

Cons

"We'd like the solution to be more secure."
"Sometimes, the deprecation of packages can be a challenge."
"The solution is not really good at debugging JavaScript, jQuery, or SQL"
"Despite its advantages, challenges in diverse cloud environments may prompt the uninstallation of the application or entire development environment for resolution."
"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."
"The GUI of Microsoft Visual Studio could improve."
"Visual Studio Team System needs to improve documentation."
"There could be more coding languages in the solution."
More Microsoft Visual Studio cons
"Microsoft could include more applications in this. And if more applications are included, then it can be scalable that way."
"Sharepoint could improve the user interface to make it easier for everyone to navigate and use. That would be a big plus."
"Exporting the whole SharePoint website is an issue."
"SharePoint Designer needs filter options for lists and libraries."
"SharePoint Designer's integration with Microsoft tools could be improved."
"In the solution, if you have a case of accidental deletion, there's no restoration, which should have been there."
"The new SharePoint Designer is very limited."
"The solution does not need any additional features."
More SharePoint Designer cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Microsoft Visual Studio is a free product."
"We are using the solution's free version."
"Microsoft Visual Studio is free. It's freeware, so you don't have to pay for its license."
"The price of Microsoft Visual Studio is approximately $400 annually."
"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."
"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."
"The introduction of the Community Version allows some people to use it free of charge."
"The cost of using Microsoft Visual Studio monthly is approximately $300."
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 entire package is expensive. There is no extra cost in addition to the standard license."
"SharePoint Online has a subscription-based model for payments and the price is based on user usage."
"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."
"The cost of the solution is based on multiple factors such as the number of users, and any customization that may be required."
"SharePoint Designer's pricing is okay."
"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 pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
University
7%
Government
17%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 expensive. The charges are $499 per user per month for the 2022 version, and the professional version costs $29. This is particularly costly in the South ...
See all answers
What needs improvement with Microsoft Visual Studio?
User authentication with the local database creates some problems. Integration with a local database on a VM server may also create issues, though connecting with a Cloud VM works well.
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
April 2025
Microsoft Visual Studio reportDownload Microsoft Visual Studio product report
Buyer's Guide
SharePoint Designer
April 2025
SharePoint Designer reportDownload SharePoint Designer 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
Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer
April 2025
Free Report: Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
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