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Microsoft Visual Studio vs SharePoint Designer comparison

Microsoft Visual Studio and SharePoint Designer are both solutions in the .NET Development Services category. Microsoft Visual Studio is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.5, while SharePoint Designer is ranked #2 with an average rating of 7.9. Microsoft Visual Studio holds a 15.9% mindshare in NDS, compared to SharePoint Designer’s 13.0% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Microsoft Visual Studio users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 82% of SharePoint Designer users who would recommend it.
Microsoft Visual Studio
Read 79 Microsoft Visual Studio reviews
  • 663 Views
  • 196 Comparison Views
95% willing to recommend
SharePoint Designer
Read 49 SharePoint Designer reviews
  • 544 Views
  • 162 Comparison Views
82% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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

Find out in this report how the two .NET Development Services solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

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To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer Report (Updated: March 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer
March 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
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
79
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
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
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the .NET Development Services category, the mindshare of Microsoft Visual Studio is 15.9%, down from 23.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SharePoint Designer is 13.0%, down from 18.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
.NET Development Services
 

Featured Reviews

LorenzoMoore - PeerSpot reviewer
Beneficial user interface, flexible, and good support
Microsoft Visual Studio is scalable. We have an assistant director and software development using Microsoft Visual Studio in my department. In the whole company, there could be hundreds using Microsoft Visual Studio. In my department, they do not like Microsoft Visual Studio, but across the departments, we will increase the usage of Microsoft Visual Studio.
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Vivek Vaibhav - PeerSpot reviewer
Intuitive, customizable, and reliable
Exporting the whole SharePoint website is an issue. For example, let's say I want to deploy it in the client environment. Right now, this was based on our own company's environment and if I wanted to deploy that onto the client's environment. To do this, I will have to recreate everything from scratch, which takes a lot of time. There should be a way somewhere where I can download the custom designs I have made and upload them to the client servers so that we can configure them on their servers. Secondly, when you have uploaded data, for example, from an Excel spreadsheet, you download it in the form of a dot IQY file. This IQY file is a bit tough to work with as it's a server-side file. If there was any option where you could just download the flat files and work with them, that would have been great.
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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

"Visual Studio's best feature is debugging, which isn't available with any other Microsoft development tool."
"The most valuable features are the extensions."
"We use TFS for our scrums, which links our tasks to actual code changes."
"The most valuable feature is the integration with different databases."
"It is great for integration with Excel."
"Most valuable features include code navigation by symbols and document auto formatting."
"Visual Studio is a tool used for custom software development. It covers everything under this umbrella, including architecture for automation testing."
"It's a useful integrated development environment."
More Microsoft Visual Studio pros
"What I like most about this solution, is that we can use it as a secondary customization platform."
"Designer is easy to manage."
"I would rate the solution's stability a nine out of ten."
"The Power App is the most valuable feature."
"The most valuable feature of SharePoint Designer is the storing of files. In the Office 365 version, there is the capability to share files with others which is helpful. The files have cross versions capability. If the solution is shut down abruptly the file is stored on the system automatically."
"The drag and drop feature is the most useful feature when using this solution."
"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."
"The scalability is excellent, and I rate it ten out of ten."
More SharePoint Designer pros
 

Cons

"Microsoft Visual Studio can improve by bringing back designers. They used to have designers for architecture charts and diagrams. They were able to do things, such as database design. If they can bring them back, it would be great."
"The migration could improve in Microsoft Visual Studio. When I upgraded from 2017 and up to 2022 it was not smooth. There was a lot of manual hand-picking. Microsoft should put a higher budget for the database developers' section in Visual Studio."
"Microsoft Visual Studio could improve by being compatible with more operating systems. However, we understand the solution is proprietary to Microsoft."
"Visual Studio Team System needs to improve documentation."
"Technical support can be slow to respond at times."
"The time that it takes to load the application can be reduced"
"I would like to have more integration with other platforms and technologies."
"IntelliSense could be better."
More Microsoft Visual Studio cons
"SharePoint Online should continue to integrate with other solutions."
"I would like to be able to use SharePoint Designer without having to buy other third party programs."
"There is zero technical support. I have to use Google to fix the issues myself."
"The solution requires more web-based publishing. It would benefit from adding in more collaboration features as well."
"Designer is easy to manage."
"The new SharePoint Designer is very limited."
"The solution is a bit complex. They should work to simplify it."
"The pricing is a little bit high and can be reduced."
More SharePoint Designer cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have an enterprise-level license. The cost is expensive for small to medium-sized organizations."
"The cost of using Microsoft Visual Studio is approximately $1,700 per user."
"Our purchasing department pays a fair price for it."
"Visual Studio Team System is expensive, but it is worth the money."
"The license is taken care of by my company and the price could be less expensive."
"We use the free version, and you don't need a license."
"There's a community edition that is absolutely free to use. It's pretty good."
"Licensing costs are reasonable."
More Microsoft Visual Studio pricing and cost advice
"SharePoint Designer is a free product. It's SharePoint that needs a license, not SharePoint Designer."
"The price is reasonable."
"I use Macintosh devices, and because this solution is not available in the Apple Ecosystem I use it because it is cost-effective."
"This solution is free of charge."
"SharePoint Designer's pricing is okay."
"The cost of the solution is based on multiple factors such as the number of users, and any customization that may be required."
"The pricing is fair."
"The entire package is expensive. There is no extra cost in addition to the standard license."
More SharePoint Designer pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Educational Organization
7%
Government
18%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
Microsoft Visual Studio is a free product.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Microsoft Visual Studio?
We have different platforms available for web development. The solution must provide user-friendly features. We get updates frequently. Multiple versions are released within a short period. We need...
See all answers
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
 

Comparisons

No data available
No data available
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Visual Studio
March 2025
Microsoft Visual Studio reportDownload Microsoft Visual Studio product report
Buyer's Guide
SharePoint Designer
March 2025
SharePoint Designer reportDownload SharePoint Designer product report
 

Also Known As

MS Visual Studio
No data available
 

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
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
Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer
March 2025
Free Report: Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
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