Microsoft Visual Studio vs SharePoint Designer [EOL] comparison

Microsoft Visual Studio and SharePoint Designer [EOL] are both solutions in the .NET Development Services category. Microsoft Visual Studio is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while SharePoint Designer [EOL] is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.7. Microsoft Visual Studio holds a 15.1% mindshare in NDS, compared to SharePoint Designer [EOL]’s 8.6% mindshare. Additionally, 95% 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 92 Microsoft Visual Studio reviews

654 Views
654 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

SharePoint Designer [EOL]

Read 49 SharePoint Designer [EOL] reviews

453 Views
453 Comparison Views

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, Adobe, FourJs and others in .NET Development Services.

To learn more, read our detailed .NET Development Services Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

.NET Development Services

August 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

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SharePoint Designer [EOL]

Ranking in .NET Development Services

3rd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the .NET Development Services category, the mindshare of Microsoft Visual Studio is 15.1%, down from 23.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SharePoint Designer [EOL] is 8.6%, down from 19.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

.NET Development Services

Featured Reviews

Eitan Gold

SQA Manager at Elmo Motion Control Ltd.

Test code efficiency improves with integrated debugger and automation

The test explorer is really important for us as it aids in testing, along with the regular debugger. Even though I forgot the term for it at the moment, there is an overall debugger tool within the IDE that is very effective. This comprehensive debugger tool does the job efficiently, making our work easier.

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

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

"We use the solution to develop applications."

"It's a useful integrated development environment."

"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."

"It is pretty simple to set up."

"The tool is good for interactive testing. It has good integrations and works well for remote services. The product also has features for collaborative work where it allows others to control my screen. It has a good community for every language."

"It is definitely sophisticated and provides many out-of-the-box features. Going community has boosted all that."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Visual Studio is the good intelligence and UI."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pros

"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."

"The scalability is excellent, and I rate it ten out of ten."

"The most valuable feature is the development."

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

"One of the most valuable features is that it's free. If you have SharePoint and you want to do some branding, then the only tool available is SharePoint Designer. Microsoft gives the portal, the content management system, and, on top of that, it gives you Designer. So we don't have a choice, but Designer is good."

"I am a developer, and whatever is not possible with the SharePoint default feature, we make custom features available for our clients. Anything which is not possible using all the methods within the solution we can customize."

"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!"

"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 [EOL] pros

Cons

"I would like to see Visual Studio improve reporting to give us more details on failures. When there are failures, it's difficult to debug. It would be helpful to have more error information to help us to identify the issue and resolve it. I want to know more about software failures and exceptions in the system."

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

"It is simple to use for most developers and nearly impossible to use for non-developers."

"Its setup process could be more straightforward."

"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 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."

"Microsoft Visual Studio can improve memory management, and packaging and reporting components."

"There is room for improvement in the price of the solution overall."

More Microsoft Visual Studio cons

"SharePoint Designer needs filter options for lists and libraries."

"The solution requires more web-based publishing. It would benefit from adding in more collaboration features as well."

"The solution is a bit complex. They should work to simplify it."

"There is zero technical support. I have to use Google to fix the issues myself."

"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."

"We would like to see an improvement in the stability and overall consistency of performance in this solution."

"The solution is not scalable at all."

"SharePoint Designer is not releasing a new version. Version 2013 was the latest version. Now in 2019, we are still using the biggest version. It doesn't work properly anymore. Sometimes we experience issues, but there is no new version."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You may have to purchase more hardware utilities like processors or RAM."

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

"The cost of using Microsoft Visual Studio monthly is approximately $300."

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

"Microsoft Visual Studio is free. It's freeware, so you don't have to pay for its license."

"Licensing costs are reasonable."

"The price of Microsoft Visual Studio is approximately $400 annually."

"Microsoft Visual Studio is a free product."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pricing and cost advice

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

"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."

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

"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."

"We are using an enterprise SharePoint Designer license."

"The tool is free of cost."

"I've never paid for SharePoint Designer. What I paid for, is the SharePoint license, the cava, and then the client accesses the line fee."

More SharePoint Designer [EOL] pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Performing Arts

13%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

15%

Healthcare Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Performing Arts

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?

The pricing for Microsoft Visual Studio is favorable. While many open-source solutions are available, none offer the robustness of Visual Studio, which includes a Marketplace for creating different...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Visual Studio?

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 havin...

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

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Visual Studio

August 2025

Download Microsoft Visual Studio product report

Buyer's Guide

SharePoint Designer [EOL]

July 2025

Download SharePoint Designer [EOL] 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

.NET Development Services

August 2025

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