It is no secret that ASP.NET controls enable developers to build applications with useful graphical user interfaces. But developing custom controls on your own, for reporting or highly data intensive grids, will be a tedious process.
Why take the trouble, when you can have amazing 3rd party controls that are rich in UI and light weight as well. What if they can be used in multi-platforms as well ?
A 3rd party control collection can do wonders to your project development team and can boost your team’s productivity as well.
Here we compare top 3 ASP.NET third party control collections. For each collection, we will go through the best features.
1. DevExpress
DevExpress, who offers over 70+ high-caliber ASP.NET Core UI controls, has received multiple awards for being the best in it’s class. Most notable is this year’s(2019) Visual Studio Magazine Reader’s Choice Award.
DevExpress stands out from others when it comes to performance.
High Performance:
DevExpress DataGrids can process Millions of records per second. It also claims to do thousands of updates per second. DevExpess Tools is thus ideal for a highly functional data-centric project.
Also, it’s client-side controls are complemented with unique server-side Web API data processing extensions and users can analyze mission-critical information at lightning speed.
For Example:
DataGrid data pulling typical speed: Data Source with 1M Records
DataGrid typical update speed: 10K Updates a Second
High-performance ASP.NET Core UI controls:
In addition to 70 high-performance ASP.NET Core UI controls, the power packed suite also includes a feature-complete Reporting platform.
The suite offers client-side JavaScript performance along with ASP.NET Razor markup and server-side ASP.NET Core Web APIs. It has a set of Material Design and other generic themes for a modern UI and sleek look and feel. It also boasts a ThemeBuilder tool for customizing themes.
Business Analytics: Charts, Reports and Pivot Tables
Create real-time dashboard style decision support systems using DevExpress GridView or TreeList controls. It also provides a powerful reporting engine and an end-user report designer so you can build intuative ASP.NET Core web applications.
Support for Angular, React and Vue:
While DevExpress ASP.NET Core UI controls are fully integrated with server-side web APIs, you can also seamlessly bind it to DevExpress Angular, React or Vue UI components.
Real-time UI updates:
Apps, that require lots of updates per second, such as Stock prices, IoT data visualization and other real-time data Apps, will find DevExpress a good fit.
Especially controls like DataGrid, TreeList, Charts along with client-side data layer can process thousands of push data updates per second using the ASP.NET Core SignalR or WebSockets libraries.
Supported IDEs And Mobile Os & Integrated Browsers:
DevExpress gels very well with Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio 2017.
And latest version, 18.2.7, supports .NET Framework 4.6.1+ / .NET Core 2.0+.
And supported Mobile Os & Integrated Browsers are Android 4.4+,iOS 9+ and Windows Phone 10
2. Telerik UI Framework
Telerik needs no intro. It’s been providing awesome ASP.NET UI controls for many years now. Telerik Offers UI collection for both ASP.NET Core as well as for older versions as well. (ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX). It also offers UI controls for React, PHP, Angular, Vue, JSP , Xamarin and SilverLight.
Since ASP.NET Core is more relevant today, we will focus more on ASP.NET Core UI controls.
Kendo UI Framework
It is called Kendo UI and this UI Framework is cross-platform, responsive and good for cloud development as well. What you get is a collection of 60+ ASP.NET Core controls for layout, navigation, visualization and data management, live editing and you can create highly interactive Apps.
Kendo UI Feature Highlights
- Cross-Platform: Build and deploy .Net applications on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX devices
- Responsive Apps: Create responsive web apps with touch support. Integration with Bootstrap. Mobile rendering and responsive capabilities.
- HTML5 Rendering with Server-side functionality: You can use Kendo UI HTML5/JS library for client side as base and then use Telerik® UI for ASP.NET Core, which offers server-side functionality. Optional: You can use them seperate or together.
- Customizable Themes: You can use a set of built-in themes . Or you can customize the themes, thanks to ThemeBuilder tool, which lets you customize themes.
- Tag Helpers: Tag Helpers are available for all of the components in the suite.
- Smart Chatbots: Smart Chatbots ares the craze now. You can create a Conversational UI chatbot in your web apps.
Demos: Watch demos so you can get a feel of it.
List of 60 + Controls:
Navigation and Layout :
- Navigation Controls – Button, Menu, PanelBar, TabStrip, ToolBar, TreeView
- Layout Controls – Responsive Panel, Splitter,Tooltip ,Window
Data:
- Data Management Controls – Grid,ListView, PivotGrid, Spreadsheet, TreeList
- Data Visualization Controls – ArcGauge, Barcode, Charts, Gauges, QR Code, Stock Chart, TreeMap
- Scheduling Controls – Calendar, GanttChart, MultiViewCalendar, Scheduler
Input Controls:
- Input Controls – AutoComplete,Color Picker
- Date and Time Pickers Controls – DateInput,DateRangePicker
- ComboBox and ListBox Controls – ComboBox, DropDownList, DropDownTree , ListBox, MultiColumnComboBox, MultiSelect, Numeric TextBox, Switch
File Upload Controls : Upload
DevCraft
In addition to Kendo UI ASP.Net Core controls, Telrik also offers .Net Tools . This package is called DevCraft, where all Telerik .NET tools and Kendo UI JavaScript components are clubbed together.
Deploying and Hosting
You should be aware that Telerik controls can be deployed in a shared asp.net hosting environment or in Azure as well.
Here are useful links to documentation:
- Deploying on Shared Hosting – Guide
- Deploying on Azure – Guide
- Deploying a Telerik-enabled WebApplication – Guide
3. SyncFusion ASP.NET Core UI Controls Library (Free and Premium)
SyncFusion is another provider of high quality .NET Core UI Controls Library. It boasts a collection of over 60 lightweight and modular responsive UI controls ithat comes in one package.
SyncFusion Feature Highlights :
Complete source code on GitHub: Complete source code along with unit test files and test scripts are available on GitHub.
Responsive (and touch friendly): All controls are “touch friendly”. They all render very well based on the underlying device. So as to provide a consistent look and feel across phones, tablets, and desktops.
Go Modular: Selective referencing: SyncFusion controls are built as modules and thus you can do selective referencing. This way only the components and features you need are included in your application. It is lightweight since only the required components and features the app needs are used.
Free Edition:Community License
Best part is, SyncFusion comes with a free edition. It is called Community edition. To quality, you have to be a Company or an individual with less than $1 million USD in annual gross revenue. And you should have 5 or fewer developers.
What do get in free Edition?
You get free access to all products available in Essential Studio as well as to Data platform (for big data), reporting and dashboards. Good thing is, support and updates are also included. I think this is good for small businesses and startups who are short on funds in the early stages.
Final Words :
Now that have seen 3 best 3rd party controls, what do you think? Your opinion matters and hence add your comments below. Have you have used any of these tools collection? Or do you have other recommendations? Add your comments below !
Author Bio:
Tom George is a freelance writer and webmaster, who loves to read and write articles on WordPress, web design and web development. You can find more interesting articles in his techie blog.