What is JetBrains Rider used for?

JetBrains Rider is a cross-platform IDE for .NET and game development, covering C#, ASP.NET, MAUI, Unity, Unreal Engine and Godot projects. It is a good fit for cross-platform .NET development on Linux or macOS, game development with Unity or Unreal and teams moving off a Windows-only IDE.

Is JetBrains Rider free?

Yes. JetBrains Rider has a free plan.

Is JetBrains Rider open source?

No. JetBrains Rider is proprietary (closed-source) software. Open-source alternatives to JetBrains Rider include Visual Studio Code, code-server and VSCodium.

What are some alternatives to JetBrains Rider?

JetBrains Rider competes with Visual Studio and ReSharper. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source JetBrains Rider alternatives.

JetBrains Rider: features, pricing and alternatives

About JetBrains Rider

Rider is a commercial IDE from JetBrains for building .NET applications and games. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and it is built for developers working across the .NET stack, from backend services to desktop and mobile apps.

It supports C#, F#, ASP.NET, Blazor, Razor, MAUI, Avalonia, WPF and WinForms, along with NuGet, Entity Framework, databases and SQL, Docker, and cloud platforms such as AWS and Azure. Game developers can work with Unity, Unreal Engine and Godot. The vendor says resource-heavy code analysis runs in a separate process, which keeps the interface responsive even with many features active. AI assistance and agents are available inside the editor.

Rider is proprietary software and the vendor states it is free for non-commercial use. It belongs to the dotUltimate toolkit for .NET and game work, and paid licenses are sold through JetBrains.

Key features

C#, F# and ASP.NET development
Blazor, MAUI, WPF and WinForms support
Unity, Unreal Engine and Godot tooling
NuGet, Entity Framework and SQL tools
Remote development and performance monitoring
Docker, AWS and Azure integration

Good fit for

→Cross-platform .NET development on Linux or macOS
→Game development with Unity or Unreal
→Teams moving off a Windows-only IDE

Tags: ide; dotnet; csharp; game-development; unity; jetbrains; cross-platform

JetBrains Rider: questions and answers

What is JetBrains Rider used for?: JetBrains Rider is a cross-platform IDE for .NET and game development, covering C#, ASP.NET, MAUI, Unity, Unreal Engine and Godot projects. It is a good fit for cross-platform .NET development on Linux or macOS, game development with Unity or Unreal and teams moving off a Windows-only IDE.
Is JetBrains Rider free?: Yes. JetBrains Rider has a free plan.
Is JetBrains Rider open source?: No. JetBrains Rider is proprietary (closed-source) software. Open-source alternatives to JetBrains Rider include Visual Studio Code, code-server and VSCodium.
What are some alternatives to JetBrains Rider?: JetBrains Rider competes with Visual Studio and ReSharper. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source JetBrains Rider alternatives.