Alternatives to Rider
.NET and game-dev IDE
Rider ranks #4 of 10 in IDEs, with an Alt Score of 85. It is proprietary, freemium from €519.00/year (commercial individual license) and available on Windows, macOS and Linux. 11 of 12 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Rider is for .NET developers — C#, F#, and VB.NET programmers, including Unity and Unreal game developers — who work on Windows, macOS, or Linux and want a single IDE across platforms. It's used by professional teams as well as hobbyists and students, since it's free for non-commercial use.
A full-featured .NET IDE with a built-in debugger for .NET Framework, Mono, and .NET Core, plus 60+ refactorings, 450+ context actions, and 2200+ live code inspections with quick-fixes. It supports unit testing (NUnit, xUnit, MSTest), a built-in decompiler, integrated version control (Git, SVN, Perforce, TFS), and database tools alongside web tech like JavaScript, TypeScript, and Razor. Unity and Xamarin projects targeting Mono are natively supported for game development workflows.
You open or create a .NET, Unity, or Unreal project in Rider, and it indexes the solution to power code completion, navigation, and real-time inspections as you write. From there you build, debug, and test directly in the IDE, using integrated tools for refactoring, version control, and database access without switching applications.
Why people leave Rider
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
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Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the IDEs checklist (16 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
| IDEs checklist | Rider | Visual Studio | CLion | NetBeans | WebStorm | PyCharm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| Language server (LSP) support | ||||||
| Debugger built in | ||||||
| Git integration | ||||||
| AI code completion | ||||||
| Remote / SSH development | ||||||
| Extensions marketplace | ||||||
| Refactoring tools | ||||||
| Integrated terminal | ||||||
| Profiler built in | ||||||
| Database tools built in | ||||||
| Free tier / community edition | ||||||
| Startup speed class |
Every fact and feature listed for Rider is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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Platforms Windows, macOS, Linux verified 2026-07-11
JetBrains Rider is a cross-platform IDE that provides a consistent experience on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
https://www.jetbrains.com/help/rider/Installation_guide.html -
License Proprietary verified 2026-07-11
Paid license — a paid subscription for commercial use
https://www.jetbrains.com/help/rider/Register.html -
Pricing model Freemium verified 2026-07-11
WebStorm and Rider are now free for non-commercial use!
https://blog.jetbrains.com/blog/2024/10/24/webstorm-and-rider-are-now-free-for-non-commercial-use/ -
Starts at €519.00/year (commercial individual license) verified 2026-07-11
commercial": {"yearly": ["\u20ac519.00"], "yearlyPerMonth": ["\u20ac43.25"], "monthly": ["\u20ac51.90"]}"
https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/buy/ -
Status active verified 2026-07-11
Rider 2026.1 is here, bringing improvements across the areas that matter most: .NET development, game development workflows, and the overall IDE experience.
https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2026/03/30/rider-2026-1-released/ -
Language server (LSP) support Partial verified 2026-07-11
Starting with the 2023.2 release cycle, the LSP API is publicly available as part of the IntelliJ Platform in the following IDEs: IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate, WebStorm, PhpStorm, PyCharm Professional, Data
https://blog.jetbrains.com/platform/2023/07/lsp-for-plugin-developers/ -
Debugger built in Yes verified 2026-07-11
Rider includes a debugger that works with .NET Framework, Mono and .NET Core applications.
https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/features/ -
Git integration Yes verified 2026-07-11
Rider includes support for Git, Subversion, Mercurial, Perforce and TFS out of the box.
https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/features/ -
AI code completion Yes verified 2026-07-11
Full Line code completion runs entirely on your local device without sending any code over the internet.
https://www.jetbrains.com/help/rider/Full_Line_code_completion.html -
Remote / SSH development Yes verified 2026-07-11
SSH connection from a local machine into a remote server or vice versa
https://www.jetbrains.com/help/rider/Remote_development_overview.html -
Extensions marketplace Yes verified 2026-07-11
Rider takes advantage of its roots by supporting a wide array of plugins developed for the IntelliJ platform and ReSharper.
https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/features/ -
Refactoring tools Yes verified 2026-07-11
Most of ReSharper's 60+ refactorings are already available in Rider, and its 450+ context actions are all there.
https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/features/ -
Integrated terminal Yes verified 2026-07-11
JetBrains Rider includes an embedded terminal emulator for working with your command-line shell from inside the IDE.
https://www.jetbrains.com/help/rider/terminal-emulator.html -
Profiler built in Yes verified 2026-07-11
JetBrains Rider integrates with the dotTrace profiler to provide performance profiling of .NET applications. You can use the profiler via the dotTrace Profiler tool window.
https://www.jetbrains.com/help/rider/Performance_Profiling.html -
Database tools built in Partial verified 2026-07-11
You can work with SQL and databases without leaving Rider. Connect to databases, edit schemas and table data, run queries, and even analyze schemas with UML diagrams.
https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/features/ -
Free tier / community edition Yes verified 2026-07-11
a free non-commercial license for JetBrains Rider
https://www.jetbrains.com/help/rider/Register.html
FAQ
Yes. Visual Studio, CLion and NetBeans have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
NetBeans, PyCharm and Eclipse — every license claim links its source.