Microsoft Visual Studio vs Zend Studio comparison

Microsoft and Zend are both solutions in the .NET Development Services category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while Zend is ranked #6. Microsoft holds a 13.0% mindshare in NDS, compared to Zend’s 3.9% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zend users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Visual Studio

Read 101 Microsoft Visual Studio reviews

1,384 Views
1,384 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Zend Studio

Read 1 Zend Studio review

171 Views
171 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Visual Studio

Zend Studio

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Visual Studio and Zend Studio based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Cognosys Inc Hardened Images, Harman and others in .NET Development Services.

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

Buyer's Guide

.NET Development Services

January 2026

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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

101

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zend Studio

Ranking in .NET Development Services

6th

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the .NET Development Services category, the mindshare of Microsoft Visual Studio is 13.0%, down from 18.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zend Studio is 3.9%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

.NET Development Services Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Visual Studio	13.0%
Zend Studio	3.9%
Other	83.1%

.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

marketacumen

President at Market Acumen, Inc.

It has higher quality code, faster debugging, and higher quality projects

* Stability is sometimes lacking in updates. * Search/replace across multiple files is not ideal. * The debugger often has problems determining where to map files to local projects, as well as setting breakpoints, which often are ignored depending on your configuration. * The product requires a subscription to Zend Server Developer, which used to be free and now has an annual fee, but it is still worth the money.

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

"Microsoft Visual Studio is a robust Microsoft product, very secure, with numerous extensions and plugins available, and it's a cross-platform development tool supporting development for any devices."

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

"We use the solution to develop applications."

"The solution includes a debug function that I can breakpoint to easily detect what is wrong with my applications."

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

"I like that it works fine and that it performs better than competing products. I'm very happy with Microsoft Visual Studio."

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

"We can write programming code, write our test cases and automate tests in Visual Studio.NET."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pros

"It has higher quality code, faster debugging, and higher quality projects."

"It has the ability to jump to any file in your project with a few keystrokes, as well as the ability to command-click on any token in your code and have it jump to the token's definition."

Cons

"The UI could be better, and development could be easier on Microsoft Visual Studio if there were more features like drag and drop and more frameworks, etc."

"The stability of Microsoft Visual Studio could improve. There are times it hangs or stops working and I have to restart the program."

"For Visual Studio, the only challenge I've faced is referencing any package or new concept I'm trying to debug or run."

"Sometimes, the deprecation of packages can be a challenge."

"I would like to see support for rapid application development. For example, if I am developing a new project, I am repeating many similar steps again and again and again. But the platform could do this easily, instead of me. It would save me time. This is something I would like to have in Microsoft Visual Studio, to have it take over repetitive tasks from me."

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

"Technical support can be slow to respond at times."

"The reporting services are quite limited in terms of features and need to be improved."

More Microsoft Visual Studio cons

"Most recent set of patches (2018) on Mac OS X caused the app to crash when you would cut more than 10 lines of code. Apparently, this was due to a bug in Eclipse, but regardless, it took several months for Zend to post a patch."

"Stability is sometimes lacking in updates."

"The debugger often has problems determining where to map files to local projects."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"I am using the free version of Microsoft Visual Studio."

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

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

"Microsoft Visual Studio is a free product."

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

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

More Microsoft Visual Studio pricing and cost advice

"Licensing is reasonable for this type of tool. Although, you can cobble together a solution which is zero cost."

"The product requires a subscription to Zend Server Developer, which used to be free and now has an annual fee, but it is still worth the money."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Marketing Services Firm

19%

Performing Arts

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	36
Midsize Enterprise	19
Large Enterprise	50

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Visual Studio?

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Microsoft Visual Studio is that the pricing is free, which is perfect.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Visual Studio?

I think Microsoft Visual Studio is a very good tool and I do not have many improvements to suggest. The only thing I can think of is that I quite regularly get notifications that interrupt my workf...

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What is your primary use case for Microsoft Visual Studio?

My main use case for Microsoft Visual Studio is writing code, specifically infrastructure as code to build resources in cloud platforms such as AWS EC2 instances, Google IAM resources, and networks...

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Also Known As

MS Visual Studio

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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

Zend Studio â the PHP IDE for smarter development. It codes faster with up to 3X performance improvements in indexing, validation, searching of PHP code. It has superior PHP 7.1 support, PHP 7.1 express migration assistant, and seamless integration with Zend Server 9. It provides robust debugging capabilities with Xdebug, Zend Debugger, and Z-Ray integration. Zend Studio has an extensive plugin capabilities provided by the large Eclipse eco-system and supports for best-in-class dev tools including Docker and Git Flow Intelligent code editor. Deploy PHP applications on any server including cloud support for Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure and support for HiDPi displays - scale graphics (ala 4K resolution).

Zend

Sample Customers

Knab, Hamburg Port Authority, Kecioren Municipality, National Instruments, Hamburg Port Authority, Government of Odisha, Kongsberg Maritime AS

CDS Global, EnglishCentral, BNP Paribas, Carlo Gavazzi, Sunstate Equipment, Novadex GmbH, CONFTEC, Marilan, Mediaspike, Cisco WebEx, Corvette America, Value Drug Mart Associates Ltd., Allied Beverage Group

Buyer's Guide

.NET Development Services

January 2026

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Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Cognosys Inc Hardened Images, Harman and others in .NET Development Services. Updated: January 2026.

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