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JetBrains Rider vs. SharePoint Designer (discontinued) vs. Microsoft Visual Studio

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Rider

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/AJetBrains supports .NET development with Rider, a .NET IDE based on the IntelliJ platform and ReSharper.

    $14.90

    per month per user

    SharePoint Designer (discontinued)

    Score3 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft's SharePoint Designer was a tool for developing SharePoint applications that has been discontinued.N/A

    Visual Studio

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AVisual Studio (now in the 2022 edition) is a 64-bit IDE that makes it easier to work with bigger projects and complex workloads, boasting a fluid and responsive experience for users. The IDE features IntelliCode, its automatic code completion tools that understand code context and that can complete up to a whole line at once to drive accurate and confident coding.

    $45

    per month

    Pricing
    RiderSharePoint Designer (discontinued)Visual Studio
    Editions & Modules
    For Individuals
    $149
    per year per user
    dotUltimate for Individual
    $169
    per year per user
    All Products Pack for Individuals
    $289
    per year per user
    For Organizations
    $419
    per year per user
    dotUltimate for Organizations
    $469
    per year per user
    All Products Pack for Organizations
    $779
    per year per user
    No answers on this topic
    Professional
    $45.00
    per month
    Enterprise
    $250.00
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    RiderSharePoint Designer (discontinued)Visual Studio
    Free Trial
    YesNoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsdotUltimate: All .NET tools, ReSharper C++ and JetBrains Rider, together in one pack——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    RiderSharePoint Designer (discontinued)Visual Studio
    Considered Multiple Products
    JetBrains
    Chose Rider
    Main difference between JetBrains Rider and Microsoft Visual Studio or the Visual Studio Code is the Find References tab that is more dynamic, customizable, filterable, among other features. I prefer the git integration of JetBrains Rider because it seems to deliver the …
    Incentivized
    Chose Rider
    Both are very similar in terms of functionalities provided, however Rider can be combined with IntellIJ adding a robust feature set.
    Incentivized
    Chose Rider
    It helps you develop and not have to think too much about some things because of the IntelliSense support for Unreal (that others don't have) and it has a quick search with multiple types as well. Visual code has an ok search, but no IntelliSense, Visual Studio has a slow …
    Incentivized
    Chose Rider
    JetBrains Rider provides better refactoring suggestions and support than Visual Studio, and uniquely, it provides specific recommendations for the Unity engine.
    Incentivized
    Chose Rider
    Rider (and the entire IntelliJ suite) has been my preferred IDE for years. Visual Studio is wonderful as well, but Rider just keeps ahead in the important features. More importantly, both IDEs provide healthy competition and I only see this getting better.

    Compared to other …
    Incentivized
    Chose Rider
    Rider is hands down smoother and way less glitchy than Visual Studio Enterprise. There are way more refactoring capabilities and spell check so that your code is readable, maintainable, and easy to follow. Since Rider is cross-platform, our developers are no longer constrained …
    Incentivized
    Discontinued Products
    Chose SharePoint Designer (discontinued)
    Both K2 and Nintex provide a powerful platform to build and run business applications that integrate seamlessly with SharePoint; business apps typically consist of workflow, forms, data and reports. The type of business apps range from simple document approval workflows to …
    Incentivized
    Chose SharePoint Designer (discontinued)
    There really isn't a holistic, complete SharePoint Designer replacement currently. You can utilize several different tools and piece together the functionality of Designer. No one really "selects" SharePoint Designer, it is just a necessary evil. For O365 subscribers, Flow …
    Incentivized
    Chose SharePoint Designer (discontinued)
    SharePoint Designer is the only tool of its kind that I feel 100% comfortable using. Compared to the Nintex workflows/forms, SharePoint Designer has much more increased functionality and ease for an IT-type user like myself. I think it has a much better and easier to navigate …
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    Chose Visual Studio
    A few years ago, Microsoft Visual Studio felt behind Rider in many features, these days, I'd say they go hand in hand.
    Incentivized
    Chose Visual Studio
    Visual Studio IDE is on par with Rider. There are some code insights and package management that Rider does better, but it's the debugger and profiling I find more powerful in Visual Studio IDE. I also consider the UI in Visual Studio IDE to be more appealing and intuitive to …
    Incentivized
    Chose Visual Studio
    Visual Studio was my preferred IDE before Rider became mature enough to replace it. Rider's performance, source control tools, and built-in refactoring make VS limited to specific use cases where Rider doesn't support.

    Incentivized
    Chose Visual Studio
    Sublime Text and JetBrains Rider are both great tools, but neither one is developed enough to provide the environment we need right now for software development. Visual Studio IDE lets us debug, create and run unit tests, do performance tweaking and fine-tuning, and program for …
    Incentivized
    Chose Visual Studio
    For performance and community reach, Microsoft Visual Studio is by far the best. It's the most used and allows us to be efficient and productive without being guinea pigs and having to test new, potentially breaking features.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Would buy again
    40 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    40 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    41 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    32 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    36 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    RiderSharePoint Designer (discontinued)Visual Studio
    Small Businesses
    .NET
    Score8.7 out of 10
    .NET
    Score8.7 out of 10
    IntelliJ IDEA
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    .NET
    Score8.7 out of 10
    .NET
    Score8.7 out of 10
    PyCharm
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ASP.NET
    Score9.5 out of 10
    ASP.NET
    Score9.5 out of 10
    WebStorm
    Score9.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    RiderSharePoint Designer (discontinued)Visual Studio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.3
    (8 ratings)
    4.9
    (17 ratings)
    9.1
    (118 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    9.3
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.2
    (15 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.8
    (15 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sources
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    RiderSharePoint Designer (discontinued)Visual Studio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    JetBrains
    Initially you may think it’s not worth paying and that there are better free options, which is definitely a lie we once tried to live with. It has everything you may ever need in .NET world, code analysis and debugging works super well and all the SQL/noSQL related integrations are just next level compared to the competition. It’s worth every penny.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    SharePoint does not provide, out of the box, a tool to create / update workflows from web. You have to use SharePoint Designer in order to create them. If you need to implement custom workflows for specific business processes, then SharePoint Designer is well suited. SharePoint Designer allows you to create workflows with task approval, email notifications, assign variables and update SharePoint Lists / Documents properties. In our company, we have created specific workflows for : - Purchase order - RH forms validation like annual employee review - Dematerialized existing forms and validation
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    When working with base C# code for desktop and web projects, then Microsoft Visual Studio is ideal as it provides the libraries and interfaces needed to quickly create, test and deploy solutions. It is when slightly more complex scenarios are required that issues can arise. The built-in integration for things like PowerBI Paginated Reports and dashboards is far from ideal.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    JetBrains
    • Provides a smooth, efficient IDE for developing .NET applications. Performance has been much better than Visual Studio in my experience.
    • Integrated refactoring tools are really comprehensive and useful.
    • Integrates with other JetBrains products such as TeamCity, Upsource, dotTrace, etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • 2013 Workflows - Loops: You can build loops to work while a value (not) equals something, or N number of times. You can insert Parallel Blocks to do multiple things at once, or to watch for multiple things, and when 1 thing finishes, cancels the others and moves to the next step or stage.
    • 2013 Workflows - Stages: Previously all we had were steps, which worked sequentially. With the Concept of Stages, we can create blocks of steps and based on the data collected during those functions, we can tell the workflow to go to a different Stage in the workflow based on a set of 1, or multiple, Conditionals in a transition area after each Stage. Giving you the power to develop multiple entire processes and skipping to the correct part of the workflow, rather than going through 20 conditionals to find out you needed to do action 31.
    • 2013 Workflows - REST API: the "Call HTTP Web Service" is a very powerful tool, but hard to understand if you have never seen it done, or have a guideline. It works very similar to the requirements in PowerShell to connect and get and post data to SharePoint using the Rest API. You can also use this to manage permissions on List Items, Lists, Sites, and Site Collections. Best part is when developed correctly, it is SUPER FAST!
    • Intentionally Building Infinite Loops: I have built multiple review process from Managing Certifications to Updating Published Documentation, that monitors when an Item, based on provided approved metadata, when the "Author" needs to review the document within the given amount of time. They will get e-mails with links asking if changes are needed. If not, it is routed to the Approving Executive, and the Workflow Automatically updates the Metadata to push out the review dates to the next date, based on metadata provided on how how often the document should be reviews. By using conditionals in the transition of stages, it basically starts over, and goes into a parallel block to allow the monitoring of multiple values of metadata to move to the next stage. Very Powerful when you want to automate these types of process. It truly is a "Set It and Forget It" process.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • I like how the tabs and panels are organized; everything is gathered together so you can find what you're looking for quickly.
    • If you can't find something, there's a thorough search engine that searches all of Visual Studio's features.
    • The Team Foundation Server feature is fantastic since it allows us to easily deploy and roll back changes on the server.
    Read full review
    Cons
    JetBrains
    • Startup time. It takes a while to index big projects.
    • Rarely it loses the intellisense and the only way to get it back is by restarting.
    • Memory usage for big projects
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • In the newest version of SharePoint Designer, they have gotten rid of the Design view which makes what used to be quick and easy changes much more code-intensive. This makes it harder for non-IT users and is more risker for all SharePoint Designer users.
    • SharePoint Designer workflows have a lot of functionality, but there are also some crucial limitations, such as not being able to put lookup fields in email subjects or using parenthesis to separate/group logical conditions.
    • Although this goes along with the Design view, there really isn't a good user interface anymore for adding conditional formatting and styles in views/pages.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Would be great if there was a better way to save and restore open tabs.
    • The built-in test runner can be improved, for example, by adding the ability to save a set of commonly run tests, etc.
    • Better integration for Microsoft SQL server would be great.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    JetBrains
    Due to the performance and productivity benefits we get with Rider, we will continue to use it for the foreseeable future.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    It is a helpful tool that we use every day.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    VS is the best and is required for building Microsoft applications. The quality and usefulness of the product far out-weight the licensing costs associated with it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    JetBrains
    Rider is a great IDE with extensive C# refactoring support and .NET-specific knowledge. This is great for building .NET applications but for our purposes, the Unity specific suggestions are really helpful.
    JetBrains Rider is great as an editing and debugging environment. It reliably connects to the Unity editor and allows debugging, which some IDEs are not as reliable at doing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    I love the overall usability of Microsoft Visual Studio. I’ve been using this IDE for more than 20 years, and I’ve seen it evolve by leaps and bounds. Today, with AI and code-suggestion/completion features, developers no longer need to remember countless libraries, methods, or language syntax, or invest a huge amount of programming effort to complete a project. It truly offers everything a developer needs to program, debug, test, and deploy in a single IDE.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    JetBrains
    The support forums and knowledge base are extensive and the JetBrains support staff respond quickly to new posts and help resolve issues. There is also a publicly accessible issue tracking system, which allows you to stay on top of any bug fixes or enhancement requests.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Support is good from Microsoft. They are quite responsive when we raise a ticket but SP Designer support will be ended by Microsoft in the near future as they have got new techs like PowerApps and Flow to achieve the same functionality SP Designer does and even more than that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    There are many resources available supporting Visual Studio IDE. Microsoft whitepapers, forum posts, and online Visual Studio documentation. There are countless demonstration videos available, as well. If users are having issues, they can call Microsoft Support, but depending on the company's agreement with Microsoft, the number of included support calls will vary from organization to organization. I've found that Microsoft support calls can be hit or miss depending on who you get, but they can usually get you with the right support person for your issue.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    JetBrains
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    IT is very complicated to understand all the functions that the environment has if you are not familiar with this type of development environments. It is important to select a good in-person training to achieve to understand all the possibilities and the capacity of the application. In this case, you will be able to develop a lot type of different applications.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    JetBrains
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    If you are not accustomed to develop in this type of development environments it would be complicated to follow all the parts of the course because if the course does not include a great tour with all the concepts to develop you will not have the option to understand all the functions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    JetBrains
    Rider is hands down smoother and way less glitchy than Visual Studio Enterprise. There are way more refactoring capabilities and spell check so that your code is readable, maintainable, and easy to follow. Since Rider is cross-platform, our developers are no longer constrained to only using Windows. We can now get a familiar development environment across Mac, Windows, or Linux!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    I haven't used anything else like this. I use different products for workflows and forms, but they aren't listed in the listings for this page. Instead of using it for workflows or forms (deprecated 2 years ago), I use Nintex. For everything else, I have what I need in the Modern version of SharePoint online
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I personally feel Visual Studio IDE has [a] better interface and [is more] user friendly than other IDEs. It has better code maintainability and intellisense. Its inbuilt team foundation server help coders to check on their code then and go. Better nugget package management, quality testing and gives features to extract TRX file as result of testing which includes all the summary of each test case.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    JetBrains
    • Built in Resharper into the license fee, great, you likely want it
    • Demands less resources from computer so needing a beefy work computer might not be the case, save money on equipment.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • For my needs, I have not found SharePoint Designer useful for my day to day maintenance of SharePoint. It is useful for viewing all the objects that make up the SharePoint site.
    • It is not as intuitive in regard to setting up Workflows. I have yet to use it to set up workflows in SharePoint. Maybe if I needed more complex workflows, it would be beneficial.
    • I like to use SharePoint Designer for moving around files within SharePoint sites.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Using the integration between Visual Studio and our source control service, the cost of re-work and losing code is drastically reduced.
    • Paid versions of Visual Studio enable developers to be so much more productive than hacked-together open source solutions that it's hard to imagine developing in Windows without it.
    • When combined with support subscriptions and the vast array of free online help options available, Visual Studio saves our developers time by keeping them coding and testing, not wasting their time trying to guess their way out of problems or spend endless hours online hoping to find answers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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