10 Most Essential Dot Net Development Tools

Quick Summary: .NET is one of the most sought-after software development frameworks. There are different tools and technologies that aid in Dot NET development. These tools and technologies are essential for everything from development to testing. Here in this blog, we have a list of the top 10 .NET tools indispensable for your software development project.

A development team without the right tools and technologies is just like a painter without brushes and a canvas. Businesses of various sizes and industries are using .NET for developing a myriad of software solutions. This is a robust cross-platform application development framework to develop applications that are supported on multiple platforms. And this is why, among many other computer programming technologies, .NET has a market share of 0.17% with 41,328 current clients.

However, you also need some Dot NET tools to create an enterprise application with the .NET platform. These tools are required for .NET development to complete projects seamlessly. For example, a code editor is needed to write, debug, and compile code. Similarly, you need other .NET dev tools to develop custom applications quickly and smoothly.

Here we will discuss the tools that are pivotal for developing apps and software with Dot NET.

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What is .NET and .NET Core?

Software development is a very dynamic field where new tools and methods emerge occasionally. Therefore, it is no surprise to find an overwhelming amount of software technologies and tools today. The Dot NET platform is one of the most popular technologies in software development which is available from Microsoft.

From a simple application for Windows, .NET has now evolved into a full-fledged platform to develop software for all kinds of popular operating systems and devices. Now its newest version .NET 7 has brought many improvements and new features like native AOT, Cryptography, GC Regions, etc.

Talking of the .NET Framework and NET Core comparison, the .NET Framework is for Windows, and .NET Core is a successor of this framework. Dot NET SDK is a comprehensive suite of tools, libraries, and compilers with the .NET platform to build and run applications.

.NET Core is cross-platform, so it can be used to build applications for desktops, mobiles, the web, and the cloud. Besides this, .NET is an open-source platform, and it is available for free, unlike the .NET Framework which requires a license.

Microsoft took another step by dropping the ‘Core’ from .NET Core when it launched .NET 5. So, starting from .NET 5, .NET became the only platform.

Besides this, there is ASP .NET Core, a web framework based on .NET Core to create websites and web applications. Businesses are using ASP .NET Core to create web applications that run on desktops, mobiles, and even the cloud. ASP .NET Core offers a unified approach to building web apps and web APIs which is one of the many reasons why ASP .NET Core is the best web framework.

With a wide range of tools and frameworks, the .NET platform is still very popular today. According to Statista, more than 30% of developers are using the .NET platform as you can see in the graph below.

The prime reason for the success of .NET is its cross-platform development capabilities. Indeed, .NET developers can create enterprise applications that are compatible with Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and the web.

It is a flexible development platform with so many options for developers and businesses. Hence, there are plenty of reasons why Dot NET is best for enterprise application development and why it’s so popular.

Check the following Dot NET tools list for all the essential add-ons useful in developing .NET applications.

Top Tools for Dot NET Development

1. Visual Studio Code

The first tool for .NET development you need is a perfect code editor to write and debug code. Indeed, code editors play a crucial role in software development and the right code editor can make coding fast and convenient. There are a lot of code editors or IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) that simplify and speed up coding.

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is quite a popular code editor today with more than 70% of developers using VS Code. This is clear from the graph below about the top code editors and IDEs.

Apart from .NET development, VS Code supports many other programming languages and frameworks. VS Code is among the best Dot NET tools you can use for developing software on the .NET platform. Visual Studio Code supports languages like C#, C++, Visual Basic, etc., and runtimes like .NET and Unity.

So, it is a suitable code editor for Dot NET development. VS Code is created by Microsoft and has many amazing built-in features. If you want more functionality with your VS Code, you can integrate extensions that are easily available to add new features.

Key features of Visual Studio Code:

• VS Code is supported on Windows, Linux, and macOS
• Complete code editor, builder, and debugger
• Easy to customize and allow third-party extensions
• Built-in support for JavaScript, JSON, HTML, CSS, and JSX
• Offers features for native, web, and language-specific technologies

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2. NuGet

When it comes to Dot NET development, developers have to deal with various software development packages. Finding and fetching the right package for a .NET project is crucial to the development process. Therefore, package managers are among the required tools for .NET developers.

You need the NuGet package manager to add the necessary code to your project for dot NET development. NuGet is a package manager for .NET platform from Microsoft that allows developers to manage and add packages in quite an easy way. Installing, uninstalling, and updating NuGet packages on Windows, Linux, and macOS is quite easy with the use of Dot NET CLI.

Key features of NuGet:

• Easy interface for installing, removing, and managing packages
• It offers a Package manager console
• Provides MSBuild toolchain to create and restore packages
• NuGet offers the tools developers need to consume, create, and publish packages

3. LINQPad

Dot NET SDK is quite versatile in developing applications for a wide range of use cases. Undoubtedly, testing the code is crucial in application development. Similarly, querying databases is also an integral part of the process. So, the role of LINQPad cannot be underestimated in Dot NET enterprise application development.

This .NET tool allows developers to test code snippets or programs and query databases with SQL or LINQ. It is a very lightweight tool with only a 20MB executable file. LINQPad creates typed database contexts with its built-in optimized engine. These contexts provide SQL data as C# objects that help developers easily work with different databases.

Key features of LINQPad

• Rich output formatting
• Autocompletion
• Optional debugger
• Dynamic development and instant feedback
• Testing any code block or program in F#, C#, or VB
• Supported drivers for databases like SQLite, SQL Server, SQL Azure, Oracle, MySQL, and PostgreSQL

4. Chocolatey

For custom application development with .NET, developers need to work with several software packages and programs. Managing different packages and programs for your .NET application manually is really a headache and takes a lot of time. Therefore, developers choose a software management automation tool like Chocolatey to speed up the process.

Chocolatey makes installing, uninstalling, and updating programs and packages a piece of cake. It reduces the burden of manually installing, configuring and finding compatible programs or packages for your .NET application on Windows systems. It can also be used to create packages.

Chocolatey can manage your software in the cloud, on-premises systems, and even in Docker containers with a single command. This is a helpful Dot NET tool to control the entire lifecycle of software from installation to updates and removal. It functions in combination with NuGet for .NET package management.

Key features of Chocolatey

• It can package up applications, installers, zip, and script files
• Chocolatey uses Windows PowerShell for different function
• It can host packages internally
• This can also be easily integrated with many other tools
• Provides central management capability to access information from different endpoints
• It is extensible with PowerShell modules

5. NDepend

This is another very useful Dot NET tool for .NET developers and teams. It analyzes your code and provides essential insights to improve your codebase. Instead of stopping your work to fix code issues and errors, NDepend can help to sort out these problems in a matter of seconds.

NDepend is a powerful static code analyzer and one of the best .NET tools to help developers to review and manage code. It is for Windows, macOS, and Linux systems. It can analyze code for .NET, .NET Core, .NET Framework, ASP .NET Core, Xamarin, UWP, and Blazor applications.

NDepend is available as a Visual Studio Code extension that offers Dot NOT metrics in visual form. This is quite helpful for optimizing and measuring the code quality.

Key features of NDepend:

• It tracks recent changes in code quality and detects issues like code smell and rule violations and keeps control of code quality
• This is also the only Dot NET tool that prevents technical debt by providing technical debt estimates
• It offers the “Quality Gate” that enforces quality criteria before releasing or committing to source control
• NDepend offers in-depth reports for your code
• It helps you to visualize code with logical pictures and graphics
• This is fast performing tool

6. ReSharper

One of the popular Dot NET tools is ReSharper. It is an extension of Microsoft Visual Studio specifically designed for .NET developers. ReSharper makes coding convenient and quick for .NET programmers by analyzing and improving code.

This tool can find problems in code and fix them automatically. Besides this, it can detect and prevent possible exceptions in your code. ReSharper provides automated code refactoring which makes changing the codebase a smooth process. This is a must-have Dot NET debugger to simplify the process and resolve code issues quickly.

Key features of ReSharper

• Code analysis to detect issues and quick fixes to improve code quality
• Refactoring helps in changing the codebase without affecting its behavior or functionality
• Makes it easy to traverse the solution like jump to any type, file, type member, etc
• Offer code editing helpers like auto-importing namespaces, rearranging code, transformations, etc
• Provides language-specific settings and configurations to maintain code standards

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7. dotMemory

Although there are many differences between the .NET framework and .NET Core, some common tools are used by Dot NET developers to create applications on each of these technologies. One of those tools is dotMemory which is a memory profiler for .NET and .NET Core apps.

Memory profiler is really helpful for Dot NET developers that allows them to get insights into the memory usage of any software. They can find memory leaks and optimize software to ensure better performance and optimum memory use. With the use of dotMemory, developers can analyze the memory of their .NET and .NET Core applications for optimizing memory usage.

Key features of dotMemory

• It shows the memory consumed by an application in real time in the timeline view
• Without affecting the profiling session, screenshots can be taken with a single click
• A single-click feature to detect the most common memory issues with in-built inspections
• It is possible to apply different criteria to software memory usage data to view it from different perspectives
• In-depth analysis of traffic in a specific timeline

8. dotTrace

Performance is an important determinant of the success of any software. Therefore, you need a way to ensure optimum performance of your application. dotTrace is a very handy Dot NET tool for analyzing the performance of .NET Core applications. This tool is helpful in discovering performance bottlenecks in your application.

With this performance profiling utility, developers can view the performance of an application in visual form and take measures to improve it. dotTrace offers insights into the use of CPU and memory resources.

Key features of dotTrace:

• It helps to analyze all performance issues
• It also makes profiling HTTP requests and SQL queries possible
• Unit tests and static methods can be profiled
• With dotTrace, developers can profile and analyze call stacks within the IDE

9. NCrunch

When it comes to testing your application, there are several tools and methods. However, NCrunch is a very reliable testing utility for .NET developers that offers live testing of .NET applications. NCrunch makes testing applications quick and convenient with a myriad of features it offers including live unit testing. NCrunch is a feature-rich Dot NET utility that lets you perform tests with various methods.

It is an automated tool for Microsoft Visual Studio. NCrunch offers real-time monitoring of your code and shows the tests in markers displayed parallel to the code.

Key features of NCrunch:

• It shows code performance data
• It can run multiple tests simultaneously
• Recent code modifications are prioritized
• Code coverage is tracked in real-time

10. NUnit

There is an easy way to perform unit testing on your Dot NET application with NUnit. It is a unit-testing framework that you can use for testing your application in units or the smallest testable parts. This framework supports a wide range of .NET platforms.

It’s an easy framework that anyone can use, whether a professional developer or a beginner. NUnit is open source and exclusively available to compose and run tests in .NET programming languages.

Key features of NUnit:

• It offers quick test outcomes without much human intervention
• Developers can easily resolve errors and bugs when recognized
• It’s popular for running tests faster and for other features like test annotations
• Multiple tests can be run simultaneously with this Dot NET tool

Your team of Dot NET developers need to be familiar with these tools to build a robust web application, website, or any other piece of software. However, you can build a team for your project that’s proficient in top of Dot NET development tools by choosing the best .NET developers. Hiring developers is easy with a few steps and there are different engagement models to pick developers on an hourly, monthly, and yearly basis.

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Final NoteThere is no doubt .NET is among the most popular software development frameworks. It is used for creating a wide range of applications for various platforms. Dot NET offers a lot of variety like .NET, .NET Core, and ASP .NET to create applications for desktops, mobile, and the Web. Choosing the right Dot NET tools is important for your application. There are lots of tools that cover several aspects from development and testing to deployment. Which tools you should choose primarily depends on factors like performance, cost, project goals, and learning curve.If you are looking for the right team for Dot NET or Dot NET core development service, Radixweb is the best option. We are highly experienced in .NET development and have worked on multiple projects, whether developing applications for desktops, mobiles, web, or cross-platform. Don’t hesitate to contact us and discuss your requirements to leverage our expertise for your .NET project.