Visual Studio Test Professional vs Zephyr Enterprise comparison

Microsoft and SmartBear are both solutions in the Test Management Tools category. Microsoft is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.2, while SmartBear is ranked #7 with an average rating of 6.5. Microsoft holds a 3.1% mindshare in TMT, compared to SmartBear’s 5.7% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of SmartBear users who would recommend it.

Visual Studio Test Professi...

Read 53 Visual Studio Test Professional reviews

1,602 Views
481 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Zephyr Enterprise

Read 9 Zephyr Enterprise reviews

1,184 Views
1,030 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Visual Studio Test Professi...

Zephyr Enterprise

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Visual Studio Test Professional and Zephyr Enterprise are two leading software testing tools. Visual Studio Test Professional has an advantage in ease of deployment and customer service, while Zephyr Enterprise is notable for its comprehensive features.

Features: Visual Studio Test Professional users highlight its seamless integration with other Microsoft tools, test management flexibility, and ease of use. Zephyr Enterprise is known for its detailed reporting capabilities, high scalability, and extensive feature set, making it a popular choice for large-scale projects.

Room for Improvement: Users of Visual Studio Test Professional suggest better reporting functionalities, improved support for non-Microsoft technologies, and enhancements in its UI. Zephyr Enterprise users seek better performance for handling large datasets, more intuitive integration options, and faster processing times. The focus for Zephyr Enterprise is on optimization rather than adding new functionalities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Visual Studio Test Professional is praised for its smooth deployment and strong customer support. Zephyr Enterprise, while having detailed documentation, faces criticism for a steeper learning curve in deployment but is noted for its helpful customer service. Visual Studio Test Professional is considered easier to deploy, giving it an edge in this category.

Pricing and ROI: Visual Studio Test Professional has lower setup costs and quicker ROI due to its integration with existing Microsoft environments. Zephyr Enterprise, despite higher initial costs, offers significant long-term ROI because of its advanced features. Users find the investment in Zephyr Enterprise justifiable due to its extensive capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Visual Studio Test Professional vs. Zephyr Enterprise Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Visual Studio Test Professional vs. Zephyr Enterprise

February 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 881,733 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

Visual Studio Test Professi...

Ranking in Test Management Tools

6th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Functional Testing Tools (10th)

Zephyr Enterprise

Ranking in Test Management Tools

7th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Test Management Tools category, the mindshare of Visual Studio Test Professional is 3.1%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zephyr Enterprise is 5.7%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Test Management Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Visual Studio Test Professional	3.1%
Zephyr Enterprise	5.7%
Other	91.2%

Test Management Tools

Featured Reviews

Payel Saha

Test Automation Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Integrated collaboration with automated test management has improved our agile workflows and continuously supports quality reporting

Visual Studio Test Professional could be improved as earlier we had flexibility in automation testing with TFS, which became a bit difficult moving to Azure DevOps. Additionally, in Visual Studio Code, we have an agent mode for GitHub Copilot, which is very helpful in testing or development phases, while Visual Studio's GitHub Copilot is a bit tricky and sometimes does not provide my desired output.For future improvements, I would like to see prompt fixing, as currently, if something goes wrong in Visual Studio, the fixing options are not always correct. If that intelligence is embedded, it would be very helpful.

Read full review

Jyoti Mittal

Director - Quality Engineering at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Integration with tool streamlines test management but needs better exporting options

I use it for test management within Jira This tool boasts an incredibly user-friendly interface that integrates seamlessly with other Jira tools. I particularly appreciate its intuitive features for designing test plans, creating test cases, and executing test cycles. Some areas for improvement,…

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

"Code testing is the most valuable feature of this solution for developing software."

"The stability has always been very good."

"The ability to quickly make your own components has been valuable."

"Visual Studio Test Professional is a very scalable solution."

"The most valuable features are tools like IntelliSense and ReSharper."

"The most valuable feature of Visual Studio Test Professional is its ease of use."

"What I like most about Visual Studio Test Professional is the way people publish templates and publish integration."

"The initial setup is easy. It's easy to configure."

More Visual Studio Test Professional pros

"It has 90% of the basic features you need without having to pay a lot of extra money."

"The solution does its job well."

"It has integration with test automation tools."

"It has many features, but the main things that we need are the test cycles and integration with automation because we have automation for the web and mobile applications. We use it for test case management to run the test cases and get the results. At this moment, it is fulfilling our requirements. We are able to get the test execution report and the test pass and fail report. This summary is delivered to our management."

"It has a very intuitive user experience."

"If anyone is looking for a good, lightweight, flexible and agile test management product, I think they would do very well with Zephyr Enterprise."

"Zephyr Enterprise is a stable solution."

"We use the solution for test case management."

More Zephyr Enterprise pros

Cons

"The data flow can be improved."

"Visual Studio Test Professional could be improved as earlier we had flexibility in automation testing with TFS, which became a bit difficult moving to Azure DevOps."

"Its UI could be better."

"The solution's documentation could be improved for beginners."

"The solution's deployment is not very easy and should be made easier."

"The tool crashes and has high memory consumption."

"The documents on the Microsoft website are not very useful, and they ought to make it easier to find answers."

"Visual Studio Test Professional needs to improve its stability."

More Visual Studio Test Professional cons

"The reporting, and the ability to reorganize the test repository, which are a little stifling. There is definitely room for improvement there."

"Zephyr Enterprise needs to redesign the reporting."

"We faced some errors while uploading the test cases."

"Creating better default varieties of reporting would make the product much better and more popular."

"Security needs improvement to protect customer information better."

"We would like support for the agile and behavior-driven development (BDD) approaches."

"The reporting, and the ability to reorganize the test repository, which are a little stifling. There is definitely room for improvement there."

"The solution is not really stable. Sometimes in the past, some pages wouldn't load due to issues."

More Zephyr Enterprise cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is a price-effective solution"

"The pricing is expensive."

"I positioned it at a mid-range level. It isn't an inexpensive solution, but considering its capabilities, it represents excellent value for the functionalities it offers."

"Our company pays a yearly licensing fee for Visual Studio Test Professional."

"The tool is expensive in my region."

"Visual Studio Test Professional is not an expensive solution."

"For the cloud services option, you buy a subscription per account or per user. This costs around $52 a month per person."

"The product is very expensive."

More Visual Studio Test Professional pricing and cost advice

"It costs a couple of thousand dollars for a little more than 125 users, per month."

"DFS is more expensive than Zephyr. DFS is around $32 per person, whereas Zephyr is $10 per person. There is a major difference in the price, which is the main reason why we are trying to shift to Zephyr."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Marketing Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Performing Arts

11%

Financial Services Firm

23%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	24

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Visual Studio Test Professional?

The most valuable features of the solution are its ease of use and availability.

See all answers

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

The tool is free, resulting in no costs associated with its use. The absence of price makes it cost-effective.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Visual Studio Test Professional?

See all answers

What do you like most about Zephyr Enterprise?

The solution does its job well.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zephyr Enterprise?

Some areas for improvement, include its export capabilities. Exporting test cases, especially those with screenshots or attachments, can be cumbersome, hindering easy sharing and scalability.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Zephyr Enterprise?

I use it for test management within Jira.

See all answers

Comparisons

Tricentis Tosca vs Visual Studio Test Professional

Compared 9% of the time

Apache JMeter vs Visual Studio Test Professional

Compared 8% of the time

SmartBear TestComplete vs Visual Studio Test Professional

Compared 7% of the time

Tricentis qTest vs Visual Studio Test Professional

Compared 7% of the time

OpenText Functional Testing vs Visual Studio Test Professional

Compared 7% of the time

More Visual Studio Test Professional Competitors

OpenText Application Quality Management vs Zephyr Enterprise

Compared 12% of the time

Tricentis qTest vs Zephyr Enterprise

Compared 11% of the time

Tricentis Tosca vs Zephyr Enterprise

Compared 11% of the time

TestRail vs Zephyr Enterprise

Compared 11% of the time

Adaptavist Test Management for Jira vs Zephyr Enterprise

Compared 8% of the time

More Zephyr Enterprise Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Visual Studio Test Professional

January 2026

Download Visual Studio Test Professional product report

Buyer's Guide

Zephyr Enterprise

January 2026

Download Zephyr Enterprise product report

Also Known As

No data available

SmartBear Zephyr

Overview

Visual Studio Professional Edition provides an IDE for all supported development languages. As of Visual Studio 2010, the Standard edition was dropped. MSDN support is available as MSDN Essentials or the full MSDN library depending on licensing. It supports XML and XSLT editing, and can create deployment packages that only use ClickOnce and MSI. It includes tools like Server Explorer and integration with Microsoft SQL Server also. Windows Mobile development support was included in Visual Studio 2005 Standard, however, with Visual Studio 2008, it is only available in Professional and higher editions. Windows Phone 7 development support was added to all editions in Visual Studio 2010. Development for Windows Mobile is no longer supported in Visual Studio 2010; it is superseded by Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft

Zephyr Enterprise is a robust enterprise test management platform that manages all aspects of the testing lifecycle. The solution is provided as an on-premise installation as well as a SaaS-based installation. Zephyr Enterprise enables you to make a rigid process flow flexible enough to accommodate changes. In addition, it provides all the functionality QA teams and testers need in order to create and execute test cases with less effort, allowing more time to do actual testing by alleviating significant time-wasting steps.

Zephyr Enterprise Features

Zephyr Enterprise has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Visual dashboards
One-click integration
Multi Jira instance
Scalability
Third-Party Integrations
Reporting & Statistics
Data Import/Export
Data Visualization
User Management
Move & Copy
Software Testing Management
Requirements-Based Testing
Industry-strength scalability
Documented APIs
Regular maintenance and upgrades

Zephyr Enterprise Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Zephyr Enterprise. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Ready-to-use reports and customizable dashboards: With Zephyr Enterprise, reports and dashboards are updated in real time and you can share test results and link with your team in Jira to connect any known issues. In addition, the solution helps you increase workflow efficiency because it improves info sharing during standup meetings.

Supports bi-directional and multi-instance Jira integration: Not only does Zephyr Enterprise support bi-directional and multi-instance Jira integration, but it also gives you the ability to support multiple projects simultaneously – up to 200,000 test cases.

Global repository for test cases: Zephyr Enterprise helps you create, categorize, and store your test cases via a global repository that can be shared across your entire organization. You can also quickly reuse test cases using the structured folder management.

Test execution: Zephyr Enterprise makes it possible for you to execute tests step by step, manage pass/fail status, and launch automated execution, then file those defects into Jira. Zephyr Enterprise test executions allow teams to operate in a more efficient way.
Universal test automation: Zephyr Enterprise supports a wide range of automation frameworks, helping you decrease operational costs and increase test coverage.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the Zephyr Enterprise solution.

A Manager of Enterprise Applications at a retailer says what’s most valuable is that “It's very easy and simple to use, which is beneficial. It has 90% of the basic features you need without having to pay a lot of extra money.” He also adds, “Zephyr Enterprise is very stable and the initial setup is straightforward.”

Jawaad A., Test Automation Lead at Trapeze, explains, "It has many features, but the main things that we need are the test cycles and integration with automation because we have automation for the web and mobile applications. We use it for test case management to run the test cases and get the results. At this moment, it is fulfilling our requirements. We are able to get the test execution report and the test pass and fail report. This summary is delivered to our management."

SmartBear

Sample Customers

Transport for Greater Manchester, Ordina, Bluegarden A/S, CLEAResult, Jet.com, OSIsoft, Australian Taxation Office, BookedOut, Tracasa

Hyundai, Fujitsu, Google, David Jones, Burger King, Ingenico, Websense, Dow Jones, Harris, Saab

Buyer's Guide

Visual Studio Test Professional vs. Zephyr Enterprise

February 2026

Free Report: Visual Studio Test Professional vs. Zephyr Enterprise

Find out what your peers are saying about Visual Studio Test Professional vs. Zephyr Enterprise and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.

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