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SharePoint Designer [EOL] vs Zend Studio comparison

Microsoft and Zend are both solutions in the .NET Development Services category. Additionally, 82% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zend users who would recommend it.
Zend Studio
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  • 185 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between SharePoint Designer [EOL] and Zend Studio based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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

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.NET Development Services
February 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

SharePoint Designer [EOL]
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
49
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Zend Studio
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
.NET Development Services (6th)
 

Featured Reviews

Vladimir Vasilev - PeerSpot reviewer
Vladimir Vasilev
Digital Lead at Baker Tilly
Helps to centralize and share files and has an easy setup
I'm using the solution for creating different sites in our organization. We also use it for a file repository mainly.  It's provided us with a centralized document database that is available to all collaborators 24/7. There are good features in general. It helps centralize and store files.  It's…
Read full review
marketacumen - PeerSpot reviewer
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

"The initial setup is straightforward."
"SharePoint has very good features for collaboration."
"Designer is easy to manage."
"The solution is scalable."
"SharePoint Designer is easy to deploy and it is one of the most valuable features. The whole process took a couple of days and it is easy to work on."
"The technical support from Microsoft is very good."
"We like the highly customizable websites that you can build."
"You can give document access to people based on their email addresses. You will also get notifications whenever the document is ready for review."
More SharePoint Designer [EOL] 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

"SharePoint Designer doesn't support the features that are available in the latest version of SharePoint Online."
"Sharepoint could improve the user interface to make it easier for everyone to navigate and use. That would be a big plus."
"SharePoint is too complex to install and maintain."
"The solution requires more web-based publishing. It would benefit from adding in more collaboration features as well."
"The solution does not need any additional features."
"Microsoft could include more applications in this. And if more applications are included, then it can be scalable that way."
"The record management and digital signature sides need improvement because we still need to rely on other third-party tools."
"SharePoint Designer could be improved by being more user-friendly. I think that they have a new release, but the focus is on Power Automate, not Designer. Designer's interface is somewhat classical, but it should be more user-friendly."
More SharePoint Designer [EOL] 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 is reasonable."
"SharePoint Online has a subscription-based model for payments and the price is based on user usage."
"It is a free solution that does not require a license."
"The cost of the solution is based on multiple factors such as the number of users, and any customization that may be required."
"The pricing is fair."
"The tool is free of cost."
"There is no licensing cost for Designer—it's free."
"We are using an enterprise SharePoint Designer license."
More SharePoint Designer [EOL] 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
20%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Performing Arts
9%
Computer Software Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise21
No data available
 

Comparisons

Microsoft Visual Studio vs SharePoint Designer [EOL] Logo
Microsoft Visual Studio vs SharePoint Designer [EOL]
Compared 62% of the time
ASP.NET vs SharePoint Designer [EOL] Logo
ASP.NET vs SharePoint Designer [EOL]
Compared 38% of the time
More SharePoint Designer [EOL] Competitors
No data available
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
SharePoint Designer [EOL]
February 2026
SharePoint Designer [EOL] reportDownload SharePoint Designer [EOL] product report
Buyer's Guide
.NET Development Services
February 2026
Zend Studio reportDownload Zend Studio product report
 

Overview

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
Zend Studio – 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

Pyrotek Inc., ICA, Deliver Australia, Secretary of Economy of Mexico, Aegon, ABB Switzerland, Ascent Yarns Private Limited, Bakewell Biscuits Pvt Ltd, Hitachi Consulting
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
February 2026
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