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

823 Views
823 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

SharePoint Designer [EOL]

Read 49 SharePoint Designer [EOL] reviews

82% willing to recommend

Microsoft Visual Studio

SharePoint Designer [EOL]

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.

To learn more, read our detailed .NET Development Services Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

.NET Development Services

September 2025

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Helped 870,701 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

Ranking in other categories

.NET Development Services (1st)

SharePoint Designer [EOL]

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

Eitan Gold

SQA Manager at Elmo Motion Control Ltd.

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

Network Administrator at Letshego

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 system can efficiently manage the databases."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Visual Studio is the good intelligence and UI."

"I like that it works fine and that it performs better than competing products. I'm very happy with Microsoft Visual Studio."

"It is convenient to have all the development tools in one interface."

"I like the product's connection with Azure analytics services and the ability to build the model on the cloud."

"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."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft Visual Studio are the database connections."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft Visual Studio are the UI functionality where you can do software development. Everything is available there that you need. You can create the UI, and code, develop and compile it."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pros

"The most valuable feature is the development."

"When you have a group project and you want to share your document with your group members, the solution is very useful."

"What I like most about this solution, is that we can use it as a secondary customization platform."

"SharePoint Designer is easy to deploy and it is one of the most valuable features. The whole process took a couple of days and it is easy to work on."

"The solution tightly integrates with all other collaboration tools."

"The management and monitoring features are good."

"It helps centralize and store files."

"Other valuable features are the ability able to update the master file, and creating the workflow."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pros

Cons

"Microsoft Visual Studio can improve by bringing back designers. They used to have designers for architecture charts and diagrams. They were able to do things, such as database design. If they can bring them back, it would be great."

"The time that it takes to load the application can be reduced"

"Could be improved with the ability to personalize the interface and development style and to edit extension requirements."

"It would be better if it didn't get stuck. Sometimes when we are writing code, we open too many tabs and modules, and it gets stuck."

"The tool's interface should be more user-friendly."

"Technical support needs to be improved. Right now, it's not great."

"Since it is a heavy product, it is somewhat slow in building and executing the code in a localhost environment and it consumes a lot of resources."

"It would be nice if Visual Studio's extensions and updates could self-correct, if they are not working or disabled, and also inform the user."

More Microsoft Visual Studio cons

"Designer is easy to manage."

"SharePoint Designer needs filter options for lists and libraries."

"I want the tool to be more approachable to people. I would like to see AI integration with the tool's future versions."

"I believe Microsoft does not support Sharepoint on-premises. They only support Sharepoint on the Cloud. They should provide for both options and let the client choose their preference."

"The solution does not need any additional features."

"There is zero technical support. I have to use Google to fix the issues myself."

"The solution is not scalable at all."

"This solution could definitely be made easier to use."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is a free tool."

"There's a community edition that is absolutely free to use. It's pretty good."

"I use Microsoft Visual Studio's free version."

"The solution is expensive."

"Our purchasing department pays a fair price for it."

"We are using the solution's free version."

"The price is good."

"The price of Microsoft Visual Studio is approximately $400 annually."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pricing and cost advice

"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."

"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."

"SharePoint Designer is less expensive than other solutions we have used. We purchased Office 365 which SharePoint comes with the package."

"The price is reasonable."

"SharePoint Designer is a free product. It's SharePoint that needs a license, not SharePoint Designer."

"The tool's pricing is cheap."

"This solution is free of charge."

"The cost of the solution is based on multiple factors such as the number of users, and any customization that may be required."

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

Financial Services Firm

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	33
Midsize Enterprise	17
Large Enterprise	43

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	21

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

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Visual Studio

October 2025

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Buyer's Guide

SharePoint Designer [EOL]

September 2025

Download 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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