Microsoft Visual Studio vs SharePoint Designer [EOL] comparison

Why PeerSpot?

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

4,244 Views
4,244 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]

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

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

Buyer's Guide

.NET Development Services

September 2026

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Helped 913,806 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

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

"The solution can scale."

"Visual Studios is a business solution developed by Microsoft, and in general, I like it because it integrates many tools into one interface to provide a total solution."

"Collaboration grew through the implementation."

"Support for many languages and cross-platform development makes it highly versatile."

"Microsoft Visual Studio is a very robust application where I can debug quickly and resolve issues efficiently with specific solutions designed for strong debugging."

"Basically everything, it's a useful integrated development environment and it is easy and simple to use for me."

"It has been a nice programming language, I love using it, and it has created a really great cordial relationship between my clients and me."

"You can use the solution to do coding and drag and drop. It is easy to install with web documentation."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pros

"I am a developer, and whatever is not possible with the SharePoint default feature, we make custom features available for our clients. Anything which is not possible using all the methods within the solution we can customize."

"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."

"The basic functionality the solution makes it easy to share documents or information with the team."

"SharePoint Designer is the best solution we have."

"The most valuable feature is the simplicity, standardization, and ability to create more than one portal."

"SharePoint Designer has made information available centrally 24/7."

"It’s very convenient for me to update. Last time I used a function called Word. It is a good function, which I can use to coordinate easily."

"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."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pros

Cons

"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."

"Long installation or upgrade times are sometimes a problem."

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

"The pricing for licenses could be reduced to make this solution more competitive."

"Code editor is expensive."

"For small to medium-sized organizations, the licensing for Visual Studio may be too expensive."

"The solution’s technical support could be improved."

"I give it a nine because it does not support Android."

More Microsoft Visual Studio cons

"The solution is not scalable at all."

"The system can become slow which should be improved."

"If they included some training modules, I would give them a ten, because that would make it even more user-friendly."

"Microsoft could include more applications in this. And if more applications are included, then it can be scalable that way."

"SharePoint Designer could improve by making the searching feature better. It is not accurate in some cases, and there are some descriptions that are not clear."

"Overall, it's not the best solution in terms of stability."

"It has a lot of bugs. It's also not very convenient. The UX/UI is not very user-friendly and not designed to be similar to other applications from Microsoft."

"SharePoint Designer doesn't support the features that are available in the latest version of SharePoint Online."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"Microsoft Visual Studio is a free product."

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

"The introduction of the Community Version allows some people to use it free of charge."

"The price of Microsoft Visual Studio could be lowered. For a single developer, it is approximately $1,000."

"Licensing costs are reasonable."

"I'm using the platform's open-source version."

"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."

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 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."

"The pricing is fair."

"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."

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

"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."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

24%

Construction Company

Marketing Services Firm

Financial Services Firm

19%

Construction Company

15%

Outsourcing Company

13%

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

September 2026

Download Microsoft Visual Studio product report

Buyer's Guide

SharePoint Designer [EOL]

August 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

Buyer's Guide

.NET Development Services

September 2026

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