from my point of view the whole question is somewhat meaningless, because both are different kind of media, targeting not the same audience, as most visual novels require more of a understanding regarding the matter & their literary value is higher, animes on the other hand are supposed to be mostly light entertainment, ergo no need to use ones brain to the fullest. of course it also happens at times, that media are overlapping each other, but those are considered rare cases.
basically though one can like both kinds of media, its non obvious that this has to go for everyone, as there´re certainly lots of people who avoid one of them, whilst enjoying the other. only because normally both are using the same kind of visuals, that doesnt mean they are of the same kind - ergo easy comparable.
In other words, you can consider vn´s more or less to be an interactive book, whereas anime are an animated movie/series, its like comparing cars with trains.
& for the sake of answering the question, personally i put visual novels/books before anime, considering the latter beeing currently more mainstream, which increases its generic level. of course there´re some series/movies i enjoyed, but they arent as much as i had hoped them to be. (& i also know that in many cases there is no other way for the studio, because animeproductions are expensive & not many want to go down the path of creating something truly unique, having a higher risk of earning lesser money, because potential viewers wont understand a fuck etc., heck even ore monogatari flopped real damn hard caused by its NON mainstream protagonist, so that a sequel is highly unlikely, despite it beeing a good series).
another reason why i like vn´s more, is that the story is more detailed in most cases, which i definitely prefer, so that ones imagination is really able to run wild like fuck, also due to them beeing mostly written from one´s own perspective, in comparison to anime where you rather feel like an observer.