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 8.8, while Zend is ranked #3. Microsoft holds a 11.8% mindshare in NDS, compared to Zend’s 5.2% 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 100 Microsoft Visual Studio reviews

991 Views
991 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Zend Studio

Read 1 Zend Studio review

139 Views
139 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, Zend, Harman and others in .NET Development Services.

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

Buyer's Guide

.NET Development Services

December 2025

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Helped 879,310 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

Microsoft Visual Studio

Ranking in .NET Development Services

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

100

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zend Studio

Ranking in .NET Development Services

3rd

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the .NET Development Services category, the mindshare of Microsoft Visual Studio is 11.8%, down from 20.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zend Studio is 5.2%, up from 2.7% 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	11.8%
Zend Studio	5.2%
Other	83.0%

.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

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

"My company works with outsourced programmers. The solution helps us to test, integrate and foresee the code quality. We can trace the development stages."

"Visual Studio makes it easier to compile the code and shows me the errors upfront when coding. For example, it will tell me when a reference is incorrect or if there's a mistake within the function calls. I like how it highlights with a red underline so that I know there's an error at that point."

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

"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's a useful integrated development environment."

"Visual Studio is a tool used for custom software development. It covers everything under this umbrella, including architecture for automation testing."

"I have found that it is scalable."

More Microsoft Visual Studio pros

"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."

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

Cons

"Microsoft Visual Studio could benefit from a more centralized education system."

"There's not much help to deal with issues on Microsoft's official websites."

"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."

"Visual Studio Team System needs to improve documentation."

"Microsoft Visual Studio could improve by being compatible with more operating systems. However, we understand the solution is proprietary to Microsoft."

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

"Every time it updates, there are issues."

"Could be improved with the ability to personalize the interface and development style and to edit extension requirements."

More Microsoft Visual Studio cons

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

"Stability is sometimes lacking in updates."

"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."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We use the free version, and you don't need a license."

"We are using the solution's free version."

"The introduction of the Community Version allows some people to use it free of charge."

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

"Licensing costs are reasonable."

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

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

"The price is good."

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

Performing Arts

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Outsourcing Company

University

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	49

No data available

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 setup cost rates about eight out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Visual Studio?

AI integration is something that every company is trying to incorporate. While Microsoft Visual Studio is working very well currently, there is still room to improve the AI functionality.

See all answers

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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

December 2025

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Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Zend, Harman and others in .NET Development Services. Updated: December 2025.

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