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Microsoft Visual Studio vs SharePoint Designer comparison

Microsoft Visual Studio and SharePoint Designer 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 is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.7. Microsoft Visual Studio holds a 14.8% mindshare in NDS, compared to SharePoint Designer’s 8.6% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Microsoft Visual Studio users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 82% of SharePoint Designer users who would recommend it.
Microsoft Visual Studio
Read 90 Microsoft Visual Studio reviews
  • 641 Views
  • 641 Comparison Views
95% willing to recommend
SharePoint Designer
Read 49 SharePoint Designer reviews
  • 477 Views
  • 477 Comparison Views
82% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between Microsoft Visual Studio and SharePoint Designer based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two .NET Development Services solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

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To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer Report (Updated: July 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer
July 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
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
90
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SharePoint Designer
Ranking in .NET Development Services
2nd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
49
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the .NET Development Services category, the mindshare of Microsoft Visual Studio is 14.8%, down from 23.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SharePoint Designer 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 - PeerSpot reviewer
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 ( /categories/ide ) that is very effective. This comprehensive debugger tool does the job efficiently, making our work easier.
Read full review
Raphael Haroun Ikyagh - PeerSpot reviewer
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

"We like Visual Studio because you can choose the different types of languages, like JavaScript. I think it's better than the other solutions I used."
"Code management is a new and convenient feature."
"The scalability of Microsoft Visual Studio is good."
"I like it that I don't need any special software to run this program."
"Windows Presentation Foundation or WPF is valuable. It's a tool to give clients a user interface for Windows applications. The summary for mobile applications is also very useful."
"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."
"We use the solution to develop applications."
More Microsoft Visual Studio pros
"It helps centralize and store files."
"We used SharePoint Designer 2013 widely for data mining, exploring the content, and editing. Those are the main features that you would need to use SharePoint Designer for."
"You can give document access to people based on their email addresses. You will also get notifications whenever the document is ready for review."
"When you have a group project and you want to share your document with your group members, the solution is very useful."
"The initial setup is very straightforward."
"The feature I find most valuable, is the workflow of the product."
"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."
"The new version doesn't have the option to view data, but it has other, better features though."
More SharePoint Designer pros
 

Cons

"Sometimes, the deprecation of packages can be a challenge."
"The tool's interface should be more user-friendly."
"The hot reload feature is good, but sometimes it doesn't work. It could be improved."
"We'd like the solution to be more secure."
"It is simple to use for most developers and nearly impossible to use for non-developers."
"I would like the solution to have a designing default in addition to the current coding default."
"It would be great if they added some extra support for other languages that are available in the market and prepared it for the, let's say, crypto developers as we are going in the age of cryptocurrency."
"With the free version, we don't have that much support for Visual Studio. Its support is a little bit less and can be better."
More Microsoft Visual Studio cons
"SharePoint is too complex to install and maintain."
"The solution is a bit complex. They should work to simplify it."
"I believe Microsoft does not support Sharepoint on-premises. They only support Sharepoint on the Cloud. They should provide for both options and let the client choose their preference."
"SharePoint Online should continue to integrate with other solutions."
"The new SharePoint Designer is very limited."
"Microsoft could include more applications in this. And if more applications are included, then it can be scalable that way."
"The solution is not very flexible when trying to access the solution via a personal PC."
"The downside is the different versions of SharePoint which means we need to have different designers as not all versions are compatible."
More SharePoint Designer cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is a free tool."
"We purchased an expensive enterprise version of Microsoft Visual Studio."
"The development license for Microsoft Visual Studio is free. I don't know if there's a licensing cost to it."
"I am working with the open-source community version, which is free."
"There's a community edition that is absolutely free to use. It's pretty good."
"The price is good."
"The solution is expensive."
"Visual Studio Team System is expensive, but it is worth the money."
More Microsoft Visual Studio pricing and cost advice
"Priced per user per month with different plans to choose from."
"SharePoint Designer's pricing is okay."
"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."
"The entire package is expensive. There is no extra cost in addition to the standard 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."
"SharePoint Online has a subscription-based model for payments and the price is based on user usage."
"SharePoint Designer is less expensive than other solutions we have used. We purchased Office 365 which SharePoint comes with the package."
More SharePoint Designer pricing and cost advice
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861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Performing Arts
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

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?
The patching aspect can continue to be improved. Although Visual Studio has very expressive refactor solutions and efficient, reliable patching for code, there is always room for enhancement in the...
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
No data available
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Visual Studio
June 2025
Microsoft Visual Studio reportDownload Microsoft Visual Studio product report
Buyer's Guide
SharePoint Designer
June 2025
SharePoint Designer reportDownload SharePoint Designer 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
Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer
July 2025
Free Report: Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
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