Item: ReSharper
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with ReSharper

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use ReSharper to provide all of the functionality we wish Visual Studio had! I cannot live without ReSharper's code refactoring, linting, inspection, and testing tools. Yes, Visual Studio has these features, and you will think they are great until you encounter ReSharper and see how these tools really should be.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Code Refactoring.
Linting
Code Coverage.
Code Tracing.
Disassembly and Inspection.

Cons

ReSharper, because it does so much, can be quite a resource hog on slower developer machines.
Some ReSharper tools, like test running, seem to jostle with .NET's tools rather than replace or complement them (even though ReSharper's tools are superior!).
Tools like DotPeek could be better integrated with the Visual Studio IDE.

Return on Investment

ReSharper has saved time (and thus money!) by disassembling and creating PDB files for libraries that did not ship with them, enabling complex bugs with third-party software to be quickly diagnosed and resolved.
ReSharper is considerably cheaper than a Visual Studio Enterprise subscription, so it is well worth the investment if Visual Studio Professional's tools are not enough and yet you cannot budget enough for Enterprise.
ReSharper has saved future losses with its linter by highlighting potential issues at development/compile time before they make it to production.

Usability

ReSharper is very familiar if you already know Visual Studio. JetBrains does have an excellent IDE (Rider); however, since ReSharper is an extension to Visual Studio, you only need to learn what their tools add, not a whole new way of working. I have found the extension's interface to be straightforward, although perhaps due to the massive range of features, navigating the menus is a little time-consuming until your muscle memory kicks in. Maybe a feature search tool would help make usability a 10 out of 10?

Alternatives Considered

JetBrains Rider, Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft Visual Studio Code

ReSharper does what it does very well because it operates inside the IDE you are already using. It provides advanced features that function far above and beyond what Visual Studio Professional offers and does not require you to learn another IDE like JetBrain's excellent IDE Rider. My only wish is that ReSharper had a Visual Studio Code plugin!

Key Insights

Do you think ReSharper delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with ReSharper's feature set?

Yes

Did ReSharper live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of ReSharper go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy ReSharper again?

Yes

Other Software Used

JetBrains Rider, dotPeek (part of dotUltimate)

Likelihood to Recommend

ReSharper is the best all-in-one tool for Visual Studio that I have encountered. It contains many features not found in Visual Studio Enterprise, and those features already in Visual Studio provide much better implementations. I would recommend this to all developers, with the only people who will find it a detriment are developers running older, slower machines (due to ReSharper's resource requirements).

Comments

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ReSharper is the greatest extension for Visual Studio.