If you are a .NET developer who has worked on Web forms (even though we are seeing web forms fading away), then the chances of you hearing the word Telerik are very high.

Telerik started as a company providing tools to the .NET development community and has over these years, built frameworks around mobile development as well as JavaScript development.

As javascript is becoming more prominent with NodeJS running production-level codes, Telerik by Progress seems to be a good choice for development libraries by the developers.

 

Do you really need tools like Telerik?

With .NET, programmers could deliver solutions much faster as web forms and controls were very well defined. As things evolved over time, more control-level features started being requested by clients as well as a lot of emphasis was given to the look and feel and UX (user experience). At this stage, the conventional controls seemed handicapped.

To help developers, third-party libraries like Telerik and DevExpress came to the rescue. These companies became the de-facto standard for development for enterprise-level software development in .NET.

 

Is Telerik helpful?

Absolutely! Without a doubt! Having used DevExpress for almost 5 years and Telerik for the past two years, I can safely vouch for these solutions. Not only are the solutions out of the box, but also very easy to configure. Rarely has it been the case that the requirement has not been fulfilled via these.

 

We measure the success of a framework via the online community and support available (especially for open-source frameworks), does anything of this sort exist for Telerik?

Telerik products are used by over 2-million developers. If I have to make an educated guess, then about 30% of the .NET developers would have used Telerik at some point in time in their professional lives. If you check the Telerik website, they boast of clients such as Microsoft, Ferrari, Philips, Nokia, Barclays, IBM to name a few.

 

How is Telerik’s Customer Support?

In terms of customer support, the service is A+. I cannot remember a time where any of my queries went unanswered, incorrectly answered, or even answered late.

Along with that, they have a very good forum where you would get most of the answers to your questions.

Also Read: Telerik Reporting vs Power BI or Tableau

 

I do not use Webforms, can I use Telerik in my MVC framework?

Absolutely! In fact, you can use Telerik even if you are not a .NET developer. Their product portfolio consists of Kendo UI, UI for AJAX, UI for MVC, UI for Core, UI for Silverlight, UI for PHP, UI for JSP along with frameworks for mobile.

 

How to get started?

You can go via the trial route just to ensure you know what you are getting into. Once you are comfortable, you can either go in for an individual library, or the Devcraft bundle (https://www.telerik.com/devcraft).

 

With technology changing extremely fast, it would be prudent to keep renewing your licenses to get the latest updates and the best customer service.

Disclaimer – This is not a promotional article, but the experience of the author.

 

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