Microsoft Visual Studio vs SharePoint Designer [EOL] comparison

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 102 Microsoft Visual Studio reviews

3,045 Views
3,045 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]

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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, Harman, Zend and others in .NET Development Services.

To learn more, read our detailed .NET Development Services Report (Updated: May 2026).

Buyer's Guide

.NET Development Services

May 2026

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Helped 900,644 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

102

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

PrasannaRao

Senior Manager, Application Development at PSKW, LLC

Code reviews have become clearer and debugging now improves multi-language API development

I appreciate the debugging capability of Microsoft Visual Studio the most. The tracing of the debugging is what I value. I can use any editor to write the code, but Microsoft Visual Studio has strong capability. Microsoft Visual Studio has good integration with the plugins I want to use, the different types of plugins available for different languages and even JSON. Microsoft Visual Studio has improved significantly. Before, people used to use Notepad and other basic editors. Using the studio gave them the capability to properly debug and find issues. Additionally, it provides good code organization and indentation, as well as color coding for comments. It is very useful, as it gives function descriptions and class descriptions. It is very easy for someone who is not writing the code to understand it when they look at it, as it is very descriptive with proper commenting. I cannot give exact statistics on time saved, but I can provide statistics on quality improvement. The coding standard has been enforced. It has tremendously improved with Microsoft Visual Studio. I would say anywhere between 20 to 50% improvement, depending on which team we are discussing.

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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.

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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

"It has perfect integration into Microsoft; it goes straight to Azure, and it is massive."

"The most valuable feature is that it is a complete package, with an IDE and everything that you need for software development."

"There really is not any other IDE you would want to use rather than Microsoft Visual Studio."

"Microsoft Visual Studio provides comprehensive development capabilities and is very user-friendly, allowing you to create any type of application, including mobile applications, console applications, Windows applications, WPF, ASP.NET MVC, and .NET Core, while also offering intelligence features that automatically identify issues and help avoid coding errors."

"Microsoft Visual Studio's most valuable features are usability. It's an integrated development environment, they have a lot of built-in tools that will be helpful for a new developer to quickly develop their applications, such as mobile applications or web applications."

"The solution comes at a good price and, even though there are free versions out there on the market, I still prefer this product because I like its interface."

"It is convenient to have all the development tools in one interface."

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

More Microsoft Visual Studio pros

"The solution is scalable."

"It’s very convenient for me to update. Last time I used a function called Word. It is a good function, which I can use to coordinate easily."

"The most valuable feature is the capability to directly access the SharePoint data structure."

"We appreciate the fact that this solution can provide us with an on-premises version, as due to our geographical location, we are not able to use cloud-based tools."

"What I like most about this solution, is that we can use it as a secondary customization platform."

"The workflow is the solution's most valuable feature."

"The most valuable feature is the simplicity, standardization, and ability to create more than one portal."

"The initial setup is not too complex."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pros

Cons

"Since it is a heavy product, it is somewhat slow in building and executing the code in a localhost environment and it consumes a lot of resources."

"I have faced configuration issues with Microsoft Visual Studio."

"I am facing some problems with technical support."

"I don't see a return on investment with Microsoft Visual Studio."

"File installations are heavy."

"Could be improved with the ability to personalize the interface and development style and to edit extension requirements."

"Its setup process could be more straightforward."

"Microsoft should add more visualization for analytical studies or research."

More Microsoft Visual Studio cons

"The new SharePoint Designer is very limited."

"I would like to be able to use SharePoint Designer without having to buy other third party programs."

"SharePoint Online should continue to integrate with other solutions."

"SharePoint Designer could improve most in analytics and reporting."

"SharePoint Designer doesn't support the features that are available in the latest version of SharePoint Online."

"Adding guest users is a bit difficult on SharePoint."

"The solution is not very flexible when trying to access the solution via a personal PC."

"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."

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

"Its price could be better."

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

"The cost of using Microsoft Visual Studio is approximately $1,700 per user."

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

"Our purchasing department pays a fair price for it."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pricing and cost advice

"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."

"This solution is free of charge."

"The cost of the license is based on the size of the user base."

"We are using an enterprise SharePoint Designer license."

"The tool is free of cost."

"SharePoint Online has a subscription-based model for payments and the price is based on user usage."

"The pricing is fair."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Marketing Services Firm

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Construction Company

Performing Arts

Financial Services Firm

23%

Construction Company

12%

Marketing Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	36
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	52

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?

I think Microsoft Visual Studio is good at the moment. When I think of additional improvements, I would like to have the ability to use Claude in my Microsoft Visual Studio account since I believe ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Visual Studio?

My main use case for Microsoft Visual Studio is for writing code. Since I'm a data engineer, projects I work on using Microsoft Visual Studio are related to data engineering. We have GitHub or Bitb...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Visual Studio

June 2026

Download Microsoft Visual Studio product report

Buyer's Guide

SharePoint Designer [EOL]

May 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

May 2026

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

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