SharePoint Designer for SharePoint Online: What You Need to Know in 2026

About this guide: This is a hands-on guide to using SharePoint Designer with SharePoint Online, and what to do now that it has reached end of support. Crow Canyon offers a no-code platform in this space called NITRO Studio, which is covered near the end as one option. The rest of the guide helps any team plan its next step.

Many teams still ask a simple question: does SharePoint Designer work with SharePoint Online in 2026? For years, it was the go-to tool for building workflows and shaping forms in SharePoint. The honest answer changed this year, and it’s final. If your business still depends on SharePoint Designer for SharePoint Online, you are now on borrowed time, and it is worth knowing exactly why.

Short answer: No, not for workflows. On April 2, 2026, Microsoft retired the SharePoint 2013 workflow engine in SharePoint Online, so SharePoint Designer can no longer build or run workflows there. SharePoint Designer 2013 itself reached end of support on July 14, 2026, and Microsoft removed it from download. To keep your forms and workflows running, you now need a modern SharePoint Designer replacement.

Table of Contents

•       What Is SharePoint Designer?
•       Does SharePoint Designer Work with SharePoint Online?
•       Key Dates at a Glance
•       What Teams Used SharePoint Designer For
•       Your Options Now
•       Where NITRO Studio Fits
•       Case Study: Air Wisconsin
•       How to Move Off SharePoint Designer
•       Frequently Asked Questions
•       The Bottom Line

What Is SharePoint Designer?

SharePoint Designer, often shortened to SPD, was a free desktop tool from Microsoft. Teams used it to build workflows, shape list and library forms, edit pages, and manage data links in SharePoint. Most people relied on it for one thing above all: the approval and routing workflows that moved files and requests through a business process. SharePoint Designer 2013 was the final version, because Microsoft never released a 2016 or 2019 edition. Looking back, that was an early sign of where the product was heading.

Does SharePoint Designer Work with SharePoint Online?

The short answer above needs a little detail, because there are really two parts: the workflows that SharePoint Designer created, and the desktop tool itself. Both have now reached the end of the road for SharePoint Online.

The workflow engine is gone. SharePoint Designer built its workflows on the SharePoint 2013 workflow engine. That engine no longer exists in the cloud. Microsoft blocked it for new tenants in April 2024. It then retired it for every tenant in SharePoint Online on April 2, 2026. Any workflow that still ran on it stopped that day, with no way to extend it. When the engine was switched off, SharePoint Designer began showing an error that the admin had turned off user-defined workflows.

The tool is out of support. SharePoint Designer 2013 reached end of support on July 14, 2026. Microsoft will not issue any more security patches. Microsoft has also pulled the tool from its download center, so you can no longer install it. This applies across every Microsoft 365 setup: Commercial, GCC, GCC High, and the Department of Defense clouds.

On-premises is a different story, for now. SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 continued to support these workflows until their own end of support, which also landed on July 14, 2026. SharePoint Server Subscription Edition moves to a newer engine called SharePoint Workflow Manager, so on-premises teams still have a way forward. For SharePoint Online, though, there is simply no way back, and the only sensible direction is forward.

Key Dates at a Glance

The timeline below shows how the pieces retired, so you can see where your own setup now stands.

What Teams Used SharePoint Designer For

To plan a switch, it helps to recall everything SharePoint Designer held together. Over the years, teams leaned on it for several jobs at once:

•       Approval and routing workflows. This was the main use, moving requests, documents, and tasks through the right people in the right order.
•       Form styling. It shaped how list and library forms looked and worked, often next to InfoPath forms for anything more complex.
•       Data links and logic. It linked SharePoint to other data and applied the rules that decided what happened at each step.
•       Small site tweaks. It handled page edits and light branding that would otherwise have needed a developer.

The forms are usually the easy part to imagine. The hard part is the workflow logic behind them, because much of it was never written down and often lives in one person’s memory. That hidden logic, not the visible form, is what makes a SharePoint Designer move real work.

Your Options Now

There is no way to keep SharePoint Designer running in SharePoint Online. So every team faces the same task: rebuild the forms and workflows on a tool that still works. There are three broad paths, and it is worth being honest about the trade-offs of each.

Microsoft’s own advice is to move workflows to Power Automate, build forms in Power Apps and Microsoft Forms, and handle any custom work with the SharePoint Framework. This keeps you inside the Microsoft stack, which is a real plus for many teams. The catch is that this is a few tools rather than one, each with its own license and learning curve. Microsoft itself has admitted there are gaps between classic SharePoint Designer workflows and Power Automate flows. The SharePoint Migration Tool can move some workflows across, but it only handles supported actions and drops the workflow history, so a fair amount of rebuilding is still done by hand.

A no-code platform is the other main route, and it is why products in this space exist. These platforms rebuild both the forms and the workflows in one place, let business users run them, and keep your data inside your own tenant. The trade-off is simple: you take on another vendor and another license. For many teams, that cost is worth it to have one simple tool that covers everything SharePoint Designer used to do.

The table below sums up how the main options compare.

Where NITRO Studio Fits

To be transparent, this is our platform, and we present it here as one option that meets the goals above. NITRO Studio is a no-code and low-code platform built for Microsoft 365, Teams, and SharePoint. NITRO Forms covers the forms, and NITRO Workflows covers the automation, so a single product replaces both halves of what SharePoint Designer used to do.

A few points make it a natural fit for teams leaving SharePoint Designer behind. It runs on all three SharePoint Online plans, which are Commercial, GCC, and GCC High, and on on-premises SharePoint Server 2016, 2019, and Subscription Edition. Your data stays inside your own tenant. The pricing is flat and simple, with unlimited forms and workflows rather than a charge for each one. Because the forms designer maps closely to the patterns SharePoint Designer and InfoPath users already know, the learning curve is short, and Crow Canyon gives you a dedicated team to handle the heavy lifting.

You can see the full picture on the NITRO Studio product page, and the purpose-built SharePoint Designer replacement page lays out the deployment options and pricing in detail. If you want the reasoning rather than the feature list, this write-up explains why NITRO Studio is a strong SharePoint Designer alternative.

Crow Canyon Software is a Microsoft Solutions Partner with more than 27 years of focus on SharePoint and Microsoft 365, and more than 1,000 organizations use NITRO Studio, including agencies with strict data rules. NITRO adds AI for tasks like sorting and summarizing, which you can turn on or off based on your rules.

Case Study: Air Wisconsin

Air Wisconsin is a good example of what this move looks like in practice, because its processes leaned heavily on Microsoft InfoPath and SharePoint workflows. The airline had to replace more than 400 InfoPath forms, plus the SharePoint workflows behind them, before the old tools ran out of road.

After reviewing a few options, the IT team chose NITRO Studio because it worked across both SharePoint on-premises and Office 365, and it was low-cost and easy to use. They rebuilt the forms and workflows inside their current SharePoint setup, then automated many more tasks across the company. As Systems Administrator Lori Popoff put it, “I once again love my job!” You can read the full Air Wisconsin case study for the details.

How to Move Off SharePoint Designer

Whichever platform you pick, a clear plan keeps the project on track and avoids nasty surprises. The following steps work well no matter where you land.

1.     Take stock. List every SharePoint Designer workflow and form still in use, along with the process each one supports.
2.     Rank by risk. Put the workflows tied to money, compliance, and personal data at the top, because those carry the highest cost if they break.
3.     Map the hidden logic. For each workflow, write down who submits, who reviews, who approves, and where things tend to stall, since that logic is the real work.
4.     Pick a platform that fits. Choose a tool that fits your setup and compliance needs, whether that is SharePoint Online, on-premises, or a government cloud.
5.     Rebuild the key items first. Rebuild the highest-risk forms and workflows, check them with the people who use them, and confirm the results match.
6.     Test, then cut over. Run the new process next to the old one where you can, then switch fully once it proves solid.
7.     Turn off the old and document the new. Retire the legacy workflows, and document how the new ones work so the knowledge doesn’t vanish again.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you still use SharePoint Designer with SharePoint Online?

Not for workflows. The SharePoint 2013 workflow engine was retired in SharePoint Online on April 2, 2026, so SharePoint Designer can no longer create or run workflows there. The tool itself reached end of support on July 14, 2026.

Is SharePoint Designer deprecated?

Yes. SharePoint Designer 2013 was the last version, and it has now reached end of support with no replacement version from Microsoft. It gets no security updates and is no longer offered for download.

What replaced SharePoint Designer workflows?

Microsoft points teams to Power Automate for workflows and Power Apps for forms. Many teams instead choose a single no-code platform, such as NITRO Studio, that rebuilds both the forms and the workflows in one place.

Can I still download SharePoint Designer 2013?

No. Microsoft took SharePoint Designer 2013 off its download center around the July 14, 2026 end-of-support date, so you can no longer install it.

Does SharePoint Designer work with SharePoint Server on-premises?

It did until SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 reached end of support on July 14, 2026. SharePoint Server Subscription Edition uses the newer SharePoint Workflow Manager, so on-premises customers still have a supported path, unlike SharePoint Online.

What is the best SharePoint Designer alternative?

The best fit depends on your team and your setup. Power Automate suits cloud-only teams with developer support, while a no-code platform like NITRO Studio suits teams that want forms and workflows in one tool, on-premises or online, with predictable pricing.

The Bottom Line

SharePoint Designer for SharePoint Online is no longer a path forward. The workflow engine has been retired, and the tool is out of support and no longer available for download. Keeping legacy workflows limping along only adds risk, especially for teams that must answer to auditors or cyber insurers about old, unsupported software.

The smart move is to rebuild the processes that matter on a modern, backed platform your own team can run. Whether you choose Microsoft’s Power Platform or a no-code option like NITRO Studio, the plan is the same: inventory what you have, rank it by risk, and rebuild the highest-value forms and workflows first. If you want a head start, the SharePoint Designer replacement page is a practical place to begin.