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SharePoint Designer vs Zend Studio comparison

Microsoft and Zend are both solutions in the .NET Development Services category. Microsoft is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.7, while Zend is ranked #8. Microsoft holds a 8.6% mindshare in NDS, compared to Zend’s 3.4% mindshare. Additionally, 82% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zend users who would recommend it.
SharePoint Designer
Read 49 SharePoint Designer reviews
  • 477 Views
  • 477 Comparison Views
82% willing to recommend
Zend Studio
Read 1 Zend Studio review
  • 117 Views
  • 117 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between SharePoint Designer and Zend Studio based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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

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To learn more, read our detailed .NET Development Services Report (Updated: July 2025).
Buyer's Guide
.NET Development Services
July 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

SharePoint Designer
Ranking in .NET Development Services
2nd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
49
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Zend Studio
Ranking in .NET Development Services
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the .NET Development Services category, the mindshare of SharePoint Designer is 8.6%, down from 19.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zend Studio is 3.4%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
.NET Development Services
 

Featured Reviews

Raphael Haroun Ikyagh - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Read full review
marketacumen - PeerSpot reviewer
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

"The most valuable part of the solution is its ability to allow for a high degree of customization."
"The support on offer is helpful."
"SharePoint has very good features for collaboration."
"The management and monitoring features are good."
"The most valuable feature is the capability to directly access the SharePoint data structure."
"The solution is scalable."
"The workflow is the solution's most valuable feature."
"If you're working in a communication channel team, SharePoint Designer is a great solution because it helps to have some customized solutions in terms of communication and to create web experiences for external teams."
More SharePoint Designer pros
"It has higher quality code, faster debugging, and higher quality projects."
"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."
 

Cons

"SharePoint Designer doesn't support the features that are available in the latest version of SharePoint Online."
"The record management and digital signature sides need improvement because we still need to rely on other third-party tools."
"The new SharePoint Designer is very limited."
"SharePoint does not have enough resources to cover the security part."
"Microsoft could include more applications in this. And if more applications are included, then it can be scalable that way."
"I am not sure how stable the solution will be once Microsoft stops supporting it."
"SharePoint is too complex to install and maintain."
"The downside is the different versions of SharePoint which means we need to have different designers as not all versions are compatible."
More SharePoint Designer cons
"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

"SharePoint Designer is a free product. It's SharePoint that needs a license, not SharePoint Designer."
"There is no licensing cost for Designer—it's free."
"SharePoint Online has a subscription-based model for payments and the price is based on user usage."
"It is a free solution that does not require a license."
"The cost of the solution is based on multiple factors such as the number of users, and any customization that may be required."
"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 entire package is expensive. There is no extra cost in addition to the standard license."
More SharePoint Designer 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
Government
16%
Healthcare Company
8%
Performing Arts
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SharePoint Designer?
It saved me big time once! My car got broken into and they took my laptop with all my files. But I didn't have to worry because everything was backed up on SharePoint. It was a lifesaver!
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SharePoint Designer?
I've leased Microsoft SharePoint Designer for the enterprise, not System Center. It's for private work, web development specifically.
See all answers
What needs improvement with SharePoint Designer?
For me, it's flexible enough for most things. But maybe they could improve the user interface to make it easier for everyone to navigate and use. That would be a big plus.
See all answers
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Comparisons

Microsoft Visual Studio vs SharePoint Designer Logo
Microsoft Visual Studio vs SharePoint Designer
Compared 100% of the time
More SharePoint Designer Competitors
No data available
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
SharePoint Designer
July 2025
SharePoint Designer reportDownload SharePoint Designer product report
Buyer's Guide
.NET Development Services
July 2025
Zend Studio reportDownload Zend Studio product report
 

Overview

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
Zend Studio – 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

Pyrotek Inc., ICA, Deliver Australia, Secretary of Economy of Mexico, Aegon, ABB Switzerland, Ascent Yarns Private Limited, Bakewell Biscuits Pvt Ltd, Hitachi Consulting
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
July 2025
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