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

4,993 Views
4,993 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: October 2026).

Buyer's Guide

.NET Development Services

October 2026

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Helped 920,769 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

Uchechi-Sylvanus

Head Of IT at Cedric Masters Ltd

Long-term use has streamlined automation and cloud deployment for organizational workflows

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 things that could be done. I am satisfied with what is currently available. I am using the community version of Microsoft Visual Studio, so I would not be in the right position to tell whether it is very expensive. However, I feel the pricing can be lower for small to medium enterprises to afford it. Many smaller organizations still leverage the community version. The cost can be made more affordable for these businesses.

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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 code analysis tool is particularly valuable as it eliminates the need for manual code reviews."

"Windows Presentation Foundation or WPF is valuable; it's a tool to give clients a user interface for Windows applications, and the summary for mobile applications is also very useful."

"Microsoft Visual Studio has positively impacted my organization by providing a standardized interface, making it easy to collaborate across teams."

"It's got a lot of tools integrated into it."

"If you want to use .NET or C#, then Visual Studio is the best solution."

"My company works with outsourced programmers. The solution helps us to test, integrate and foresee the code quality. We can trace the development stages."

"It is pretty simple to set up."

"Microsoft Visual Studio's most valuable features are usability. It's an integrated development environment, they have a lot of built-in tools that will be helpful for a new developer to quickly develop their applications, such as mobile applications or web applications."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pros

"It stopped us from having to run around, manually exchanging documents."

"The feature I find most valuable, is the workflow of the product."

"The one thing I just love is having a platform that is easy to collaborate on and see my work."

"The most valuable part of the solution is its ability to allow for a high degree of customization."

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

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

"Mainly, it is a very useful tool I can use for small to medium requirements."

"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."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pros

Cons

".NET apps are only compatible with Windows Phone 8 and Windows platforms."

"File installations are heavy."

"Its IntelliSense, while overall good, I think it can be improved by covering the local status."

"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."

"If you use a lot of data, it's not stable, but if you use it for business tasks, it's stable because they are simple tasks."

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

"What I don't like about Microsoft Visual Studio is its user interface. It could be better. WebStorm is a better solution for me as it has a good user interface and is more user-friendly, though my friends like Microsoft Visual Studio. I worked with WebStorm for the web layer, and for the server layer, I worked with IBM Eclipse which is my favorite software. I also dealt with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS through Angular."

"The solution must provide user-friendly features."

More Microsoft Visual Studio cons

"We'd like it if we got less frequent updates."

"The designer itself could be improved, as it isn't particularly intuitive."

"The pain point of SharePoint Designer is sometimes it gives you issues that can be resolved mostly by clearing the cache, but Microsoft should still work on it and make the product more stable. Another issue related to SharePoint Designer is that with the newer SharePoint versions, Microsoft hasn't released a newer version of SharePoint Designer. Instead, Microsoft is recommending that you use the same old SharePoint Designer 2013. If Microsoft updates SharePoint Designer, the product will be more beneficial."

"SharePoint Designer's integration with Microsoft tools could be improved."

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

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

"We were using SharePoint Designer 2013, but we have recently upgraded to modern SharePoint; however, because the development platform was changed, the new SharePoint Designer is very limited, so we don't use SharePoint Designer very often."

"I have heard of clients that have complained about the stability once a certain amount of data, over 200 gigs has been reached as well as the stability of SQL Databases."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The license is taken care of by my company and the price could be less expensive."

"Microsoft Visual Studio is free. It's freeware, so you don't have to pay for its license."

"Its price could be better."

"The price is good."

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

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

"We use the free version, and you don't need a license."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pricing and cost advice

"SharePoint Designer's pricing is okay."

"SharePoint Online has a subscription-based model for payments and the price is based on user usage."

"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."

"I use Macintosh devices, and because this solution is not available in the Apple Ecosystem I use it because it is cost-effective."

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

"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."

"There is no licensing cost for Designer—it's free."

"It is a free solution that does not require a license."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

18%

Construction Company

14%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

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...

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What needs improvement with Microsoft Visual Studio?

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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Compared 14% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

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Zend Studio vs SharePoint Designer [EOL]

Compared 22% of the time

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Compared 22% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Visual Studio

October 2026

Download Microsoft Visual Studio product report

Buyer's Guide

SharePoint Designer [EOL]

October 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

October 2026

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