A company in the US wants to establish its software development department. They already have 4 to 5 projects lined up. And I will be starting to design the first one. Exciting times, eh?
One of the primary requirements is to use third-party controls that can somewhat emulate Microsoft Office’s feel. The reason for this is that – most users are already accustomed to using Microsoft Office, they do not need to undergo extensive training. Since I am planning to use ASP.Net MVC, the controls should also have support for ASP.Net MVC extensions.
For this, I have checked SyncFusion, DevExpress, Telerik, and Infragistics.
Third Party Vendors That Have Controls That Can Emulate Microsoft Office End-User Experience And Has Razor Support (Asp.Net Mvc Extensions)
|
Important Controls |
No ASP.NET MVC extensions |
|||
|
jQuery Controls |
DevXtreme |
Kendo UI |
Ignite UI |
|
|
Ribbon |
ü |
ü |
ASP.NET |
|
|
Menu |
ü |
ü |
ü |
|
|
Navigation |
ü (Accordion) |
ü |
ü (PanelBar) |
|
| Hierarchical Treeview | ü | ü | ü | |
| Grid | ü | ü | ü | |
| Splitter | ü | ü | ü | |
| File Upload / File Manager | Upload box. No file manager | ü Very cool
|
Simple upload. No file manager | |
| Drag and Drop | X | ü | X | |
| Charts | ü | ü | ü | |
| Dock and Modal Popups | ü | ü | Notification & Window controls | |
| Tabs | ü | ü | ü | |
| PDF / PDF Viewer | ü | X | X | |
| Responsive Layout | X | ü | ü | |
| Reports | Based on RDL/RDLC, XML based, capable of dynamic reporting |
Uses own Report Engine | Uses own Report Engine | |
| Documentation | 3.5/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 | 1/5 |
| Support | No experi | No experience. I heard it’s great. | Superb support. | |
| Pricing (source code included) | Free for Individual developers or up to five users at companies with annual gross revenue below $1 million USD.Essential Studio $2,495 |
Universal Subscription (includes everything) $ 2199.99 |
DevCraft Ultimate (includes everything) $ 1,999.00 |
Ultimate $ 1995.00 – $2,495 (w/ Priority Support) |
| Others | Can be Free | has Outlook-inspired application pre-built template. | Microsoft uses Telerik in their UIs. |
Conclusion:
I think we should base our decision on which set has the most controls that are useful to the projects we are going to work on. Like are we going to use File Upload / File Manager with drag and drop features, hierarchical grid, ribbon control etc?
Here are some comments about DevExpress vs Telerik vs Infragistics vs jQuery UI that I have found on LinkedIn:
* First 3 is heavy. For lightweight option, use jQuery and jQuery UI. Can be easily customized.
* If going to use charts, 3rd party would be nice too.
* Ok to use for a quick project
* Angular JS is the future, jQuery is great (jqGrid for the grid) – problem would be if you need reporting
* Telerik is open source
* Telerik won on //www.techwars.io/fight/telerik/devexpress/
* Telerik has a very polished UI with a solid api. Infragistics had a lot of functionality but was a bit buggy. UI wasn’t quite as polished as Telerik. I’ve heard they’re stronger on the winforms side.
* Infragistics is buggy. We use it but spent a lot of time working around issues with browser support. The controls also have issues with ajax interaction
* If its something specific like Chart, then I would say DevExpress is leading the way. If its something to do with grids and grid customization, the you would be better off going for Infragistics. Telerik fits in when you need a diagramming type of component. So all in all each one is good in a specific area IMO.
* I’ve used Infragistics and Devexpress… Devexpress is superior hands down. Their support and samples are great… 90% of the time I can find a working sample that’s helps me find a solution to issues I am trying to solve.
* I’ve used Telerik & DevExpress but when it comes to WinForms and reporting I have to say DevExpress all the way. Telerik is great for web development.
* For new WEB application I’d recommend you Sencha Ext JS. It will bring you MVC pattern on client side, supplying you rich set of controls, good contacts with ASP.NET MVC, CSS and HTML5. Other modern candidates are Wijmo or Kendo from Telerik.
* I’ve used telerik, devexpress, ,infragistics and syncfusion. In my opinion telerik is really flexible tools. In devexpress i experience some troubles about customizing. infragistics is quite good but telerik is really good for me.
* I have used both Telerik and Devexpress. Devexpress is good for Winforms and Telerik is awesome for web apps. Both are comparatively good.
* Infragistic : – I have used it for asp.net web application. They provide rich user experince but heavy. lot of java script code.
Devexpress : I have used it for mvc project and lot of features and rich user experience. But very heavy. Even single text box it add lot of html and rendering takes time. Learning curve is bit high. But it works.
Jquery UI and other jquery plugins : Best opton for me. Very light. Free. Customizable if you good in jquery and java script easy to use.