Microsoft Visual Studio vs Zend Studio comparison

Microsoft and Zend are both solutions in the .NET Development Services category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7, while Zend is ranked #4. Microsoft holds a 14.4% mindshare in NDS, compared to Zend’s 3.6% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zend users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Visual Studio

Read 92 Microsoft Visual Studio reviews

780 Views
780 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Zend Studio

Read 1 Zend Studio review

132 Views
132 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Visual Studio

Zend Studio

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Visual Studio and Zend Studio based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, FourJs, Zend and others in .NET Development Services.

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

Buyer's Guide

.NET Development Services

August 2025

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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

Ranking in .NET Development Services

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zend Studio

Ranking in .NET Development Services

4th

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the .NET Development Services category, the mindshare of Microsoft Visual Studio is 14.4%, down from 22.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zend Studio is 3.6%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

.NET Development Services Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Visual Studio	14.4%
Zend Studio	3.6%
Other	82.0%

.NET Development Services

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

marketacumen

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.

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

"It is also flexible enough to let me use Git as well as its own version control mechanism."

"We like Visual Studio because you can choose the different types of languages, like JavaScript. I think it's better than the other solutions I used."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Visual Studio is its integration with Azure DevOps."

"The valuable feature is that it provides a basic template for everything and built-in debugging tools. They definitely save me time."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Visual Studio is how easy it is to access all the basic templates for development. There are so many features you get with Visual Studio that it's really helpful for the deployment, the development, and the intelligence behind it."

"I like the IDE or the integrated development environment. It's the best IDE."

"It is a straightforward solution to set up."

"You can easily create, edit, and test any software and develop applications for all the major platforms, including cloud, desktop, and mobile."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pros

"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."

"It has higher quality code, faster debugging, and higher quality projects."

Cons

"The reporting services are quite limited in terms of features and need to be improved."

"The best advice I can give to others is to take training because it's so easy to use out of the box. However, you might tend to install it and maybe configure it improperly. You need to have some training."

"Microsoft Visual Studio needs to improve integration."

"I would like to see Visual Studio improve reporting to give us more details on failures. When there are failures, it's difficult to debug. It would be helpful to have more error information to help us to identify the issue and resolve it. I want to know more about software failures and exceptions in the system."

"I would like the solution to have a designing default in addition to the current coding default."

"I would like to see more on-premise tips and tools along with development time so that I don't need to go to a third-party site."

"File installations are heavy."

"Additional components such as add-ons could be included in the installation packages."

More Microsoft Visual Studio cons

"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."

"Stability is sometimes lacking in updates."

"The debugger often has problems determining where to map files to local projects."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The solution is a free tool."

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

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

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

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

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

"Visual Studio Team System is expensive, but it is worth the money."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pricing and cost advice

"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

Performing Arts

15%

Computer Software Company

15%

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

No data available

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

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Microsoft Visual Studio

August 2025

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Buyer's Guide

.NET Development Services

August 2025

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Also Known As

MS Visual Studio

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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

Zend Studio â the PHP IDE for smarter development. It codes faster with up to 3X performance improvements in indexing, validation, searching of PHP code. It has superior PHP 7.1 support, PHP 7.1 express migration assistant, and seamless integration with Zend Server 9. It provides robust debugging capabilities with Xdebug, Zend Debugger, and Z-Ray integration. Zend Studio has an extensive plugin capabilities provided by the large Eclipse eco-system and supports for best-in-class dev tools including Docker and Git Flow Intelligent code editor. Deploy PHP applications on any server including cloud support for Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure and support for HiDPi displays - scale graphics (ala 4K resolution).

Zend

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

Buyer's Guide

.NET Development Services

August 2025

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Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, FourJs, Zend and others in .NET Development Services. Updated: August 2025.

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