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

4,602 Views
4,602 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

Download the report

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

Download the complete report

Helped 917,433 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.

Read full review

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.

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

"I have found that it is scalable."

"The most valuable feature is the integration with different databases."

"Microsoft Visual Studio has positively impacted my organization because it's very easy to use, very easy for the people to pick up on, and we can all have the same configuration or personalize it as needed."

"Microsoft Visual Studio is an easy-to-use solution."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft Visual Studio are the availability of many extensions, an interpreter, a code formator, and helpful dark and light modes."

"Microsoft Visual Studio is integrated with all tools and offers all necessary extensions, making it very convenient."

"Microsoft Visual Studio is an excellent product."

"It is great for integration with Excel."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pros

"We like that the interface is very user-friendly making it easy to use."

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

"You can give document access to people based on their email addresses. You will also get notifications whenever the document is ready for review."

"SharePoint is not only a document management system, but it also handles content management systems, workflow automation, process automation, and more."

"The solution is scalable."

"The most valuable features of SharePoint Designer are integration and collaboration capabilities, such as allowing more than one person to edit a file."

"The product is very user-friendly."

"When you have a group project and you want to share your document with your group members, the solution is very useful."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pros

Cons

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

"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."

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

"This solution could be integrated with other open-source languages, such as Python and not only C#, .NET or Microsoft development languages."

"File installations are heavy."

"The product could be improved by including axle intelligence."

"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 having more intelligence in the tool would be beneficial."

"It has a ton of options and that sometimes can become very, very overwhelming for a new person, a new developer."

More Microsoft Visual Studio cons

"The pricing is a little bit high and can be reduced."

"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 is not a great product. It can be much better in many ways."

"The availability and quality of technical support both need improvement."

"It needs to align with PowerApps and Power Automate."

"This solution could definitely be made easier to use."

"It would be helpful to have the SharePoint Designer capabilities built directly into SharePoint itself, into the management page, so as to create an online version of it directly in SharePoint."

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

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We purchased an expensive enterprise version of Microsoft Visual Studio."

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

"We have an enterprise-level license. The cost is expensive for small to medium-sized organizations."

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

"Microsoft Visual Studio is not expensive. Its licensing costs are expensive."

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

"The price is good."

"Microsoft Visual Studio is a free product."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pricing and cost advice

"This solution is free of charge."

"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."

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

"SharePoint Designer is a free product. It's SharePoint that needs a license, not SharePoint Designer."

"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."

"The tool is free of cost."

"The price is reasonable."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which .NET Development Services solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

22%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Construction Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

19%

Construction Company

15%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

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?

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

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Comparisons

ASP.NET vs Microsoft Visual Studio

Compared 20% of the time

Apache Flex vs Microsoft Visual Studio

Compared 15% of the time

Zend Studio vs Microsoft Visual Studio

Compared 14% of the time

Adobe AIR SDK vs Microsoft Visual Studio

Compared 14% of the time

Nexaweb Enterprise Web 2.0 vs Microsoft Visual Studio

Compared 13% of the time

More Microsoft Visual Studio Competitors

Zend Studio vs SharePoint Designer [EOL]

Compared 22% of the time

ASP.NET vs SharePoint Designer [EOL]

Compared 22% of the time

Adobe AIR SDK vs SharePoint Designer [EOL]

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]

September 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

Download Free Report

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Zend, Harman and others in .NET Development Services. Updated: October 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our list of best .NET Development Services vendors.

We monitor all .NET Development Services reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.