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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 8.5, while SharePoint Designer is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3. Microsoft Visual Studio holds a 15.1% mindshare in NDS, compared to SharePoint Designer’s 11.2% 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 89 Microsoft Visual Studio reviews
  • 639 Views
  • 187 Comparison Views
95% willing to recommend
SharePoint Designer
Read 49 SharePoint Designer reviews
  • 510 Views
  • 150 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: April 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Visual Studio vs. SharePoint Designer
April 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
89
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 May 2025, in the .NET Development Services category, the mindshare of Microsoft Visual Studio is 15.1%, down from 22.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SharePoint Designer is 11.2%, 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
Vivek Vaibhav - PeerSpot reviewer
Intuitive, customizable, and reliable
Exporting the whole SharePoint website is an issue. For example, let's say I want to deploy it in the client environment. Right now, this was based on our own company's environment and if I wanted to deploy that onto the client's environment. To do this, I will have to recreate everything from scratch, which takes a lot of time. There should be a way somewhere where I can download the custom designs I have made and upload them to the client servers so that we can configure them on their servers. Secondly, when you have uploaded data, for example, from an Excel spreadsheet, you download it in the form of a dot IQY file. This IQY file is a bit tough to work with as it's a server-side file. If there was any option where you could just download the flat files and work with them, that would have been great.
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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

"It's a very easy-to-use product."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Visual Studio are the way we are able to design code, deploy, and test our application. It is easy to move an artifact from the start to the deployment stage. It has well-defined processes that you can integrate with any team. Additionally, the solution is always improving."
"It is a stable solution."
"It is a straightforward solution to set up."
"The valuable feature is that it provides a basic template for everything and built-in debugging tools. They definitely save me time."
"It's a useful integrated development environment."
"Microsoft Visual Studio helps my company improve efficiency in software development suites."
"The solution can scale."
More Microsoft Visual Studio pros
"The most valuable feature of SharePoint Designer is the storing of files. In the Office 365 version, there is the capability to share files with others which is helpful. The files have cross versions capability. If the solution is shut down abruptly the file is stored on the system automatically."
"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."
"The initial setup is not too complex."
"I would rate the solution's stability a nine out of ten."
"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!"
"The most valuable features of SharePoint Designer are integration and collaboration capabilities, such as allowing more than one person to edit a file."
"The technical support from Microsoft is very good."
"The most valuable aspects of the solution are the user-friendly interface and easy workflow."
More SharePoint Designer pros
 

Cons

"Despite its advantages, challenges in diverse cloud environments may prompt the uninstallation of the application or entire development environment for resolution."
"Since it is a heavy product, it is somewhat slow in building and executing the code in a localhost environment and it consumes a lot of resources."
"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."
"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."
"Its setup process could be more straightforward."
"Microsoft Visual Studio can improve integration with the Microsoft Office suite; this was only implemented in 2022."
More Microsoft Visual Studio cons
"The solution is not very flexible when trying to access the solution via a personal PC."
"If you compare the workflow with other engines like Olympus and K2, it is very complicated to create a workflow."
"The search capabilities need to be improved."
"Adding guest users is a bit difficult on SharePoint."
"There is zero technical support. I have to use Google to fix the issues myself."
"The record management and digital signature sides need improvement because we still need to rely on other third-party tools."
"This solution could definitely be made easier to use."
"SharePoint does not have enough resources to cover the security part."
More SharePoint Designer cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We are using the solution's free version."
"Microsoft Visual Studio is a free product."
"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."
"I use Microsoft Visual Studio's free version."
"The development license for Microsoft Visual Studio is free. I don't know if there's a licensing cost to it."
"Licensing costs are reasonable."
"You may have to purchase more hardware utilities like processors or RAM."
"The price of Microsoft Visual Studio is reasonable but could be better."
More Microsoft Visual Studio pricing and cost advice
"SharePoint Designer is less expensive than other solutions we have used. We purchased Office 365 which SharePoint comes with the package."
"The price is reasonable."
"The cost of the license is based on the size of the user base."
"The tool is free of cost."
"There is no licensing cost for Designer—it's free."
"SharePoint Online has a subscription-based model for payments and the price is based on user usage."
"Priced per user per month with different plans to choose from."
"The pricing is fair."
More SharePoint Designer pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
23%
Financial Services Firm
11%
University
7%
Real Estate/Law Firm
6%
Government
16%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
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 expensive. The charges are $499 per user per month for the 2022 version, and the professional version costs $29. This is particularly costly in the South ...
See all answers
What needs improvement with Microsoft Visual Studio?
User authentication with the local database creates some problems. Integration with a local database on a VM server may also create issues, though connecting with a Cloud VM works well.
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
April 2025
Microsoft Visual Studio reportDownload Microsoft Visual Studio product report
Buyer's Guide
SharePoint Designer
April 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
April 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: April 2025.
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