Around two years ago I was on a really small team, just two or three developers, and the other developer decided they wanted us to use Rider. Because I didn’t have a preference, I used Rider and rather enjoyed it. However, that developer has since moved teams and now it is just me (for the time being).

So I was considering moving back to Visual Studio or even switching to Visual Studio Code, but I wanted to see some arguments against this.

Here is my list so far, but it’s probably out of date since I haven’t used Visual Studio in a long time.

Pros of Rider:

  • Much faster than using ReSharper
  • Less sharp interface with a better font
  • I’m used to it at this point
  • I have a Nyan cat loading bar which is kind of fun

Cons of Rider:

  • Enterprise license is expensive (probably)
  • New versions of C# aren’t immediately supported
  • Refactorings are becoming less necessary with the rise of AI assistants
  • Don’t really like their source control manager

Wanted to hear what other users think. What keeps you using Rider?