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Microsoft Visual Studio vs Zend Studio comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
103
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Zend Studio
Ranking in .NET Development Services
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the .NET Development Services category, the mindshare of Microsoft Visual Studio is 17.8%, up from 12.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zend Studio is 8.6%, up from 5.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
.NET Development Services Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Visual Studio17.8%
Zend Studio8.6%
Other73.6%
.NET Development Services
 

Featured Reviews

Uchechi-Sylvanus - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
marketacumen - PeerSpot reviewer
President at Market Acumen, Inc.
It has higher quality code, faster debugging, and higher quality projects
* Stability is sometimes lacking in updates. * Search/replace across multiple files is not ideal. * The debugger often has problems determining where to map files to local projects, as well as setting breakpoints, which often are ignored depending on your configuration. * The product requires a subscription to Zend Server Developer, which used to be free and now has an annual fee, but it is still worth the money.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The versatility and platform coverage of Microsoft Visual Studio make it a standard and stable product across Linux, Windows, and Mac, providing countless features, being lightweight, and offering extensive extensions coverage as a one-stop shop no matter the platform or language I use."
"It is definitely sophisticated and provides many out-of-the-box features, and going community has boosted all that."
"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."
"It's got a lot of tools integrated into it."
"We like Visual Studio because you can choose the different types of languages, like JavaScript, and I think it's better than the other solutions I used."
"You can use the solution to do coding and drag and drop. It is easy to install with web documentation."
"The Azure integration with Microsoft Visual Studio is perfect and wonderful."
"If you are student or new to programming, then I will recommend you use Visual Studio for development, because it is a complete IDE and easy to use."
"It has the ability to jump to any file in your project with a few keystrokes, as well as the ability to command-click on any token in your code and have it jump to the token's definition."
"Generally, it has higher quality code, faster debugging, and higher quality projects."
 

Cons

"I would like to see more tools in the next release."
"Microsoft Visual Studio can improve by adding more features to the Mac version. There are a lot of features lacking in the Mac version, there are limitations. I can install Microsoft Visual Studio on the Mac operating system, but it is not the same as if I installed it on a Microsoft Windows system. The Microsoft Windows version has a lot of features available in Microsoft Visual Studio."
"I am facing some problems with technical support."
"I feel the pricing can be lower for small to medium enterprises to afford it."
"The initial setup could be more straightforward."
"Visual Studio.Net is only used for Microsoft Windows operating system."
"Needs skills, and some versions have less features."
"In my department, they do not like Microsoft Visual Studio, but across the departments, we will increase the usage of Microsoft Visual Studio."
"Stability is sometimes lacking in updates."
"Most recent set of patches (2018) on Mac OS X caused the app to crash when you would cut more than 10 lines of code. Apparently, this was due to a bug in Eclipse, but regardless, it took several months for Zend to post a patch."
"The debugger often has problems determining where to map files to local projects."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We are using the solution's free version."
"The solution is a free tool."
"Visual Studio Team System is expensive, but it is worth the money."
"I'm using the platform's open-source version."
"Microsoft Visual Studio is free. It's freeware, so you don't have to pay for its license."
"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 purchased an expensive enterprise version of Microsoft Visual Studio."
"The cost of using Microsoft Visual Studio monthly is approximately $300."
"Licensing is reasonable for this type of tool. Although, you can cobble together a solution which is zero cost."
"The product requires a subscription to Zend Server Developer, which used to be free and now has an annual fee, but it is still worth the money."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
21%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business36
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise53
No data available
 

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...
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...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Visual Studio?
I use Microsoft Visual Studio to automate some processes within the establishment.
Ask a question
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Comparisons

 

Also Known As

MS Visual Studio
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Knab, Hamburg Port Authority, Kecioren Municipality, National Instruments, Hamburg Port Authority, Government of Odisha, Kongsberg Maritime AS
CDS Global, EnglishCentral, BNP Paribas, Carlo Gavazzi, Sunstate Equipment, Novadex GmbH, CONFTEC, Marilan, Mediaspike, Cisco WebEx, Corvette America, Value Drug Mart Associates Ltd., Allied Beverage Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Zend, Harman and others in .NET Development Services. Updated: October 2026.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.