The State of .NET 2025
The State of .NET 2025 explores how .NET developers build, shape, and modernize their applications today. Drawing on insights from more than 3,800 professionals in 34 countries that we polled as part of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Survey 2025, this report highlights the evolving roles of .NET engineers, the technologies they rely on, and the rapid shifts driven by cloud adoption, tooling innovation, and AI-assisted development.
From C# version adoption and runtime usage to web frameworks, IDE preferences, and emerging architectural trends, the .NET ecosystem continues to balance its strong enterprise heritage with a growing appetite for modern, cloud-native, and cross-platform development. We hope this report helps you understand where the .NET community is heading next – and how your own work fits into that story.
Which of the following best describe your job role(s) regardless of your position level?
Which of the following sectors is your company or organization primarily active in?
Do you plan to adopt or migrate to other languages in the next 12 months? If so, which ones?
Loyalty to the stack remains incredibly high, with nearly two-thirds of C# developers having no plans to migrate. While this speaks to the stability and satisfaction within the ecosystem, it also highlights a potential risk of insularity in an industry that increasingly favors polyglot approaches.
How many years of professional coding experience do you have?
While the ecosystem is heavily anchored by veterans – with over 45% of respondents having more than 11 years of experience – there is a healthy influx of new talent. The steady presence of developers with 1–5 years of experience suggests that .NET continues to successfully attract new entrants despite being a mature platform.
How many people work for your company / organization?
Which types of projects do you work on?
With half of all respondents working on backend services, the architectural complexity of .NET apps is increasing. However, trends suggest a pragmatic pull-back from "microservices by default" toward more maintainable structures like modular monoliths, especially as teams grapple with the overhead of distributed systems.
Which programming language(s) do you use in your .NET projects?
The synergy between C# and TypeScript continues to strengthen. With TypeScript adoption growing from 17% to 20% year-over-year, it is cementing itself as the default frontend companion for modern .NET development, likely driven by the popularity of frameworks like React and Angular within the ecosystem.
Which programming language(s) do you use in your .NET projects?
Except from C#
Adoption of the new C# versions over time
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| – | – | – | – | – | – | 43% | C# 13 |
| – | – | – | – | – | 54% | 44% | C# 12 |
| – | – | – | 50% | 42% | 27% | 19% | C# 11 |
| – | – | 30% | 32% | 32% | 24% | 18% | C# 10 |
| – | 52% | 50% | 33% | 17% | 18% | 15% | C# 9 |
| – | 52% | 50% | 33% | 17% | 23% | 16% | C# 8 |
| 63% | 48% | 39% | 24% | 13% | 13% | 10% | C# 7 |
| 40% | 27% | 27% | 16% | 8% | 9% | 7% | C# 6 |
| 43% | 29% | 29% | 7% | 4% | 2% | 6% | C# 5 or older |
| 7% | 10% | 12% | 10% | 18% | 8% | 9% | I’m not sure |
The community has largely synchronized with the annual release cadence. The rapid adoption of C# 12 (and early uptake of C# 13) proves that the "upgrade fear" of the .NET Framework era is effectively dead. Modern tooling has made staying current the default behavior rather than a costly exception.
Which IDE or editor do you use the most for C# development?
53%
45%
Visual Studio
35%
44%
JetBrains Rider
9%
9%
Visual Studio Code
1%
1%
Visual Studio for macOS
1%
1%
Other
We are witnessing a historic shift in the .NET toolchain. For the first time, the dominance of Visual Studio is being challenged at parity by JetBrains Rider (44% vs 45%). This effectively ends the era of a "one-IDE ecosystem" and signals that developers are prioritizing cross-platform performance and experience over default tooling.
What runtimes do you regularly use?
The ecosystem is split between the "modern cloud-native" and the "enterprise legacy". While the majority has moved to .NET 8/9, a remaining 35% rely on the .NET Framework, supporting critical business applications that simply cannot risk a rewrite.
Which technologies or frameworks do you use?
Cloud-native orchestration is becoming a standard part of the .NET developer's workflow.
.NET Aspire has grown from 6% to 9% in just one year, indicating that developers are looking for standardized ways to handle the complexity of distributed applications without leaving the .NET stack.
Which technologies or frameworks for web development do you use?
ASP.NET Core dominates the landscape at 70%, serving as the backbone for the majority of modern .NET web applications. Interestingly, while frontend frameworks like React and Angular hold a significant share, Blazor (25%) continues to carve out a massive niche for developers who prefer a unified C# stack from client to server.
Do you use any third-party UI frameworks?
DevExpress
Telerik
Syncfusion
Infragistics
ComponentOne
Other
While 66% of respondents don't use third-party UI frameworks, the remaining one-third represents a vibrant market for specialized components. DevExpress leads this segment (47%), followed by Telerik (26%) and Syncfusion (17%), highlighting that when developers do buy off-the-shelf solutions, they gravitate toward established, comprehensive suites for rich desktop and enterprise web applications.
Which extension(s) do you use with Visual Studio?
Which extensions for Visual Studio Code do you use?
The VS Code extension ecosystem is thriving, proving that developers want choice in their tooling. It is exciting to see the marketplace mature with high-powered options like the ReSharper extension for VS Code-compatible editors now available. This allows developers to bring enterprise-grade code analysis and intelligence into their lightweight editor workflows – giving you the heavy lifting power of a full IDE within the VS Code environment.
Which operating system does your .NET development environment use?
89%
88%
Windows
21%
26%
macOS
16%
22%
Linux
Which unit testing frameworks do you regularly use?
Note: Percentages exclude respondents who do not write unit tests for C#.
Unit testing adoption is high, but the quality of that automation remains the primary bottleneck for shipping velocity. While xUnit and NUnit remain the standard tools, the challenge for many enterprise teams isn't the framework choice – it's the coverage and reliability of the tests themselves.
Which performance or diagnostic tools do you regularly use?
While Visual Studio’s built-in diagnostic tools remain the convenient default for many, the ecosystem is rich with alternatives. The strong showing for tools like dotMemory and dotTrace proves that developers still reach for specialized profilers for deep-dive analysis. Furthermore, JetBrains Rider’s integrated debugging and profiling suite has become a go-to for cross-platform developers who need powerful diagnostics outside the traditional VS environment.
Which cloud services do you use?
47%
18%
Microsoft Azure
39%
43%
Amazon Web Services
16%
23%
Google Cloud Platform
6%
14%
Alibaba Cloud
6%
7%
DigitalOcean
5%
5%
Tencent Cloud
3%
4%
Oracle Cloud
There is a clear home court advantage for Azure among C# developers (47%), but AWS is a remarkably close second (39%), proving that the .NET stack is truly cloud-agnostic today. Interestingly, this hierarchy flips for non-C# developers, where AWS and GCP take the lead. The presence of Alibaba Cloud also highlights the global footprint of modern .NET deployments beyond Western markets.
Generative AI has firmly established itself in the developer toolkit. ChatGPT (67%) continues to dominate as the general-purpose assistant, with GitHub Copilot (63%) serving as the standard for in-line completion. It is also great to see JetBrains AI Assistant rapidly securing third place (33%), offering developers a context-aware alternative deeply integrated into their IDEs.
Which areas of the software development cycle does your company use AI tools in?
How likely are you to try AI coding agents in the next 12 months?
Very likely
Somewhat likely
Not sure
Somewhat unlikely
Very unlikely
I already use AI coding agents
In your opinion, how likely is your company to try AI coding agents in the next 12 months?
Very likely
Somewhat likely
Not sure
Somewhat unlikely
Very unlikely
My company is already using AI coding agents
In your opinion, why would your company not be likely to try AI coding agents in the next 12 months?
Less than 1 hour
From 1 to less than 2 hours
From 2 to less than 4 hours
From 4 to less than 8 hours
8 hours or more
I don’t save any time
What is your biggest concern about AI in coding and software development?
23%
18%
Limited understanding of complex code and logic by AI tools
18%
24%
Quality of generated code
15%
9%
Lack of context awareness
12%
11%
Negative effect on my coding and development skills
9%
9%
Job security and future job prospects
9%
13%
Privacy and security
7%
5%
Intellectual property concerns over AI-generated code
The 'enterprise gap' remains the primary barrier to AI adoption. C# developers and their peers in other ecosystems share a common skepticism: Current AI tools often struggle with the nuance and scale of complex, real-world codebases. The fear that AI lacks the context to understand 'enterprisey' logic suggests that the next battleground for AI tools won't be about generating code, but about understanding architecture.
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