# JetBrains Rider Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/jetbrains-rider/ 54 people recommended JetBrains Rider in Hacker News comments, 12 had mixed feelings and 13 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 12 months, in 34 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Developers, mostly on .NET, say it is faster and smoother than Visual Studio, especially on Linux and Mac. The most common caveat is subscription-only licensing. Summary written by Claude from 52 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 50 of those comments still count. ## Why people recommend it - Faster and better than Visual Studio (6 comments in the sample): "I use rider on Mac (and windows to be fair) and i think the experience is better than visual studio on windows" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45899898)) "I have used both VS and Rider for .NET development and for me Rider beats VS by a mile." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49023602)) "I use Rider & WebStorm daily and I find Rider is a lot faster than Visual Studio" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45984551)) - Excellent for .NET and C# (5 comments in the sample): "I've personally found Rider to be a great IDE for .NET development outside of Windows." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45900262)) "It's not a Microsoft product & is used by a large percentage of .NET devs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46954557)) "it's the best IDE for C#/.NET you can get on non-Windows platforms imo" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45983360)) - Strong debugging and code navigation (3 comments in the sample): "Debugging tools and code navigation in a proper IDE like Visual Studio or JetBrains Rider is totally different development experience" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48569956)) "Still I take debugger in Visual studio or Rider any day instead of VSCode debugger." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49740632)) "Debugging and code navigation are much better in proper IDE." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48566456)) - Works well on Linux and Mac (2 comments in the sample): "I use Jet Brains Rider (free non commercial) for C# .Net projects on Linux machines" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47461692)) "I have a much better dev experience on Linux/Rider than on Windows/VS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45898134)) ## What people warn about - Subscription-only licensing (2 comments in the sample): "Rider seems neat, and I'd be happy to purchase a license, but subscription only? No thank you." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46828690)) "I still use Rider, but I've stopped my All Products subscription" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50220336)) - Bugs and declining quality (2 comments in the sample): "I've felt the quality has gone downhill ever since I first started paying for it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49983206)) "hitting ten different bugs in Rider in a single day broke the camel's back" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49805089)) - Slow and heavy on memory (1 comment in the sample): "Rider was great for years, but last couple of years it's just become brutally slow." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49886087)) ## Other IDEs people recommend - [JetBrains IDEs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jetbrains-ides/): 154 recommend, 58 mixed, 129 criticize - [IntelliJ IDEA](https://hackerapproved.com/p/intellij-idea/): 141 recommend, 47 mixed, 93 criticize - [Microsoft Visual Studio](https://hackerapproved.com/p/visual-studio/): 106 recommend, 41 mixed, 146 criticize - [Delphi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/delphi/): 92 recommend, 23 mixed, 38 criticize ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/) ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "JetBrains Rider", https://hackerapproved.com/p/jetbrains-rider/ (54 recommend, 12 mixed, 13 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.