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, 96% 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 103 Microsoft Visual Studio reviews

3,746 Views
3,746 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

SharePoint Designer [EOL]

Read 49 SharePoint Designer [EOL] reviews

82% willing to recommend

Microsoft Visual Studio

SharePoint Designer [EOL]

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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, Zend, Harman and others in .NET Development Services.

To learn more, read our detailed .NET Development Services Report (Updated: August 2026).

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.NET Development Services

August 2026

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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

103

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

PrasannaRao

Senior Manager, Application Development at PSKW, LLC

Code reviews have become clearer and debugging now improves multi-language API development

I appreciate the debugging capability of Microsoft Visual Studio the most. The tracing of the debugging is what I value. I can use any editor to write the code, but Microsoft Visual Studio has strong capability. Microsoft Visual Studio has good integration with the plugins I want to use, the different types of plugins available for different languages and even JSON. Microsoft Visual Studio has improved significantly. Before, people used to use Notepad and other basic editors. Using the studio gave them the capability to properly debug and find issues. Additionally, it provides good code organization and indentation, as well as color coding for comments. It is very useful, as it gives function descriptions and class descriptions. It is very easy for someone who is not writing the code to understand it when they look at it, as it is very descriptive with proper commenting. I cannot give exact statistics on time saved, but I can provide statistics on quality improvement. The coding standard has been enforced. It has tremendously improved with Microsoft Visual Studio. I would say anywhere between 20 to 50% improvement, depending on which team we are discussing.

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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.

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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

"There are a lot of features that are very, very nice in Visual Studio, and we can publish directly to the premise's servers, and I was testing how to publish in a cloud using Azure and it was very easy."

"We use the solution to develop applications."

"A very valuable feature of Microsoft Visual Studio is the debugger, which is helpful for debugging applications line by line, and the features available in Microsoft Visual Studio are beneficial for making builds, deployments, and everything related to dot net projects with C#, which provides great efficiency in my work."

"It's a universal solution. I like that I can easily find software developers for it. I can easily find staff on Microsoft forums. Also, we have other components that are running on top of Visual Studio. I like that it is open to other platforms. Finally, there are many many resources for Microsoft Visual Studio and I can easily find support. There is a large knowledge base for it as well."

"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."

"The installation of the solution is easy."

"My advice to others is Microsoft Visual Studio is a good tool for development."

"Microsoft Visual Studio is highly stable."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pros

"The most valuable feature of SharePoint Designer is document management."

"We like the highly customizable websites that you can build."

"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."

"Microsoft has invested in SharePoint heavily in terms of UI, stability, performance, and it is a very good solution."

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

"The new version doesn't have the option to view data, but it has other, better features though."

"SharePoint Designer is the best solution we have."

"SharePoint has very good features for collaboration."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pros

Cons

"I would not recommend it for complex tasks."

"The support from Microsoft is not the best, but it is above average."

"I would like to see support for rapid application development. For example, if I am developing a new project, I am repeating many similar steps again and again and again. But the platform could do this easily, instead of me. It would save me time. This is something I would like to have in Microsoft Visual Studio, to have it take over repetitive tasks from me."

"The solution must provide user-friendly features."

"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."

"There could be some additional customization on the themes for the visual aspect to make it easier to read the code, though plugins are available for that."

"Support for spell checking comments should be inbuilt and automatically installed."

"IntelliSense needs better management of using clauses, with auto add/remove using reference and auto detect/suggest references or NuGet packages."

More Microsoft Visual Studio cons

"SharePoint Designer could improve most in analytics and reporting."

"We would like to see an improvement in the stability and overall consistency of performance in this solution."

"Unfortunately Microsoft announced a few years ago that the last update for SharePoint Designer was released on August 2, 2016 and that Microsoft Flow will be the workflow designer and engine going forward."

"The downside is the different versions of SharePoint which means we need to have different designers as not all versions are compatible."

"The initial setup depends on company specifics. So, it's a bit complex."

"SharePoint is too complex to install and maintain."

"SharePoint Designer could be improved by being more user-friendly. I think that they have a new release, but the focus is on Power Automate, not Designer. Designer's interface is somewhat classical, but it should be more user-friendly."

"If you compare the workflow with other engines like Olympus and K2, it is very complicated to create a workflow."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We purchased an expensive enterprise version of Microsoft Visual Studio."

"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."

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

"The price of Microsoft Visual Studio is reasonable but could be better."

"Its price could be better."

"Microsoft Visual Studio is not expensive. Its licensing costs are expensive."

"I am working with the open-source community version, which is free."

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

More Microsoft Visual Studio pricing and cost advice

"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."

"The price is reasonable."

"This solution is free of charge."

"The entire package is expensive. There is no extra cost in addition to the standard license."

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

"Priced per user per month with different plans to choose from."

"SharePoint Designer's pricing is okay."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

17%

Construction Company

11%

Marketing Services Firm

10%

Financial Services Firm

20%

Construction Company

16%

Outsourcing Company

Marketing Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	36
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	53

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	21

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Visual Studio?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that since we install it directly from downloads, the cost is minimal. If we have a Microsoft Visual Studio enterprise license, I'm not sure...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Visual Studio?

Microsoft Visual Studio has done enough from my perspective. I am not a core developer, so I just use the basic tools that I need for basic things. A core developer would easily see additional thin...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Visual Studio?

I use Microsoft Visual Studio to automate some processes within the establishment.

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Visual Studio

July 2026

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Buyer's Guide

SharePoint Designer [EOL]

July 2026

Download SharePoint Designer [EOL] product report

Also Known As

MS Visual Studio

No data available

Overview

Microsoft Visual Studio is a comprehensive platform for coding and app development, integrating tools for multiple languages like .NET, C#, Python, and JavaScript. Known for its debugging, IntelliSense, and Azure/Git integration, it enhances both cloud and local project workflows.

Developers turn to Microsoft Visual Studio for its diverse capabilities in building web, mobile, and cloud solutions. Its robust tools offer rich debugging and code navigation, supported by a user-friendly interface and seamless Azure/Git connectivity. Despite a powerful feature set, users suggest areas for performance, usability, and third-party integration improvements. The platform is designed to support both large-scale and small team development through Live Share and a flexible plugin ecosystem.

What are the key features of Microsoft Visual Studio?

Debugger: Offers powerful error resolution tools for efficient coding.
IntelliSense: Provides smart autocomplete to enhance coding speed and accuracy.
Code Navigation: Facilitates easy exploration of large codebases.
Multi-language Support: Accommodates .NET, C#, Python, JavaScript, and more.
Azure/Git Integration: Simplifies cloud deployment and version control.
Live Share: Enables real-time collaboration among developers.

What benefits should users consider in Microsoft Visual Studio?

Versatility: Supports a wide range of project types and languages.
Performance: Designed for efficient operation in development tasks.
Collaboration: Live Share facilitates teamwork and project management.
Deployment: Offers streamlined processes for both cloud and local apps.
Development Efficiency: Tools improve coding, testing, and prototyping speeds.

Microsoft Visual Studio is widely implemented in industries needing diverse app development such as finance, healthcare, and technology. With tools that suit both cloud services and on-premises applications, it caters to web, mobile, and integrated service demands, enabling cohesive development and operations strategies.

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

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.NET Development Services

August 2026

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