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

4,244 Views
4,244 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

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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: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

.NET Development Services

September 2026

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Helped 913,806 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

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

"While you're coding, it's really nice to be able to print stuff out and make sure that all the data is being organized the way you want it to be."

"The solution can scale."

"It is easy to integrate with GitHub. We integrate with GitHub, and we deploy our solution on our local system. We need this integration for pushing our code. When we were working with Eclipse, we had to write everything in the command prompt, which is a little bit tricky, whereas Visual Studio is very much UI-based and simple. So, it's very easy to integrate GitHub with Visual Studio. It is much easier than Eclipse."

"Microsoft Visual Studio is an excellent product."

"My advice for anybody who is considering using Visual Studio is that it is a complete package that contains everything you need for .NET code development."

"Microsoft Visual Studio has improved the way our organization functions by allowing us to develop applications rapidly."

"Visual Studio's collaborative features with Azure DevOps are valuable to us, as they allow various team members to collaborate on the same project, maintain consistency, and deliver products that fulfill client promises."

"We use TFS for our scrums, which links our tasks to actual code changes."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pros

"The solution tightly integrates with all other collaboration tools."

"The feature I find most valuable, is the workflow of the product."

"As an enterprise, I'd say it is completely worth the money."

"The drag and drop feature is the most useful feature when using this solution."

"The product is very user-friendly."

"The basic functionality the solution makes it easy to share documents or information with the team."

"The most valuable feature is the capability of creating HTML pages, with CSS code."

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

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pros

Cons

"The hot reload feature is good, but sometimes it doesn't work. It could be improved."

"Microsoft Visual Studio can be improved by integrating an agent that can support developers in the development process."

"In my department, they do not like Microsoft Visual Studio, but across the departments, we will increase the usage of Microsoft Visual Studio."

"It would be nice if Visual Studio's extensions and updates could self-correct, if they are not working or disabled, and also inform the user."

"I would not recommend it for complex tasks."

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

"Sometimes crashes happen and occasionally there might be hanging issues."

More Microsoft Visual Studio cons

"I have heard of clients that have complained about the stability once a certain amount of data, over 200 gigs has been reached as well as the stability of SQL Databases."

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

"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."

"The interface of SharePoint Designer could be improved, such as in SAP."

"SharePoint is too complex to install and maintain."

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

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

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Microsoft Visual Studio could be lowered. For a single developer, it is approximately $1,000."

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

"You have to be a subscriber with a Visual Studio subscription to use the solution and the organization has to purchase a license that's linked to the account."

"The development license for Microsoft Visual Studio is free. I don't know if there's a licensing cost to it."

"The solution is expensive."

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

"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."

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

More Microsoft Visual Studio pricing and cost advice

"We are using an enterprise SharePoint Designer license."

"SharePoint Designer is less expensive than other solutions we have used. We purchased Office 365 which SharePoint comes with the package."

"This solution is free of charge."

"The tool's pricing is cheap."

"There is no licensing cost for Designer—it's free."

"The cost of the solution is based on multiple factors such as the number of users, and any customization that may be required."

"The entire package is expensive. There is no extra cost in addition to the standard license."

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

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

24%

Construction Company

Marketing Services Firm

Financial Services Firm

19%

Construction Company

15%

Outsourcing Company

13%

Marketing Services Firm

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?

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 thin...

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

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Compared 24% of the time

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More SharePoint Designer [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Visual Studio

September 2026

Download Microsoft Visual Studio product report

Buyer's Guide

SharePoint Designer [EOL]

August 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

September 2026

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