Redgate Visual Studio addin

Question

I realise that this may be subjective (and would appreciate not being voted down on this one XD), but I would like some advice from other developers out there who have used RedGate's .Net productivity addins - ANTS Performance Profiler Pro, ANTS Memory Profiler, and Excpetion Hunter. Its quite pricey, and basically, does anyone recommend it? And do the ANTS products do what they say they can (respectively)?:

• Identify bottlenecks and ensure code is performing optimally
• Zero in fast on common causes of memory leaks

Anticipating your input on this. much thanks!

Answer 1

I have both the RedGate performance and memory profilers, and both are good. I used the trial of Exception Hunter when it first came out, but didn't see a need for it so I don't have a licence for that.

ANTS Performance Profiler - this is very good and I have used it many times to identify bottlenecks in code. The user interface is intuitive and easily shows slow/inefficient areas to focus on.

ANTS Memory Profile - I've had less success with this as I find it harder to use. I also have a licence for the SciTech Memory Profiler which I find a better tool for memory profiling, allowing you to see more detailed information and drill down into it easier.

My biggest niggle with the RedGate tools (and this applies to all of their tools) is that they do not work through authenticating proxies and there is no way to configure them to (this doesn't stop them from running though).

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If cost is an issue, Eqatec make a free performance profiler. I've never used it though, so cannot comment on how good it is.

If you are looking to solve a specific memory/performance issue, the cost of these tools will pay for itself in saved time. If you are just curious about your application then it would be a harder cost to justify.

Answer 2

I have evaluated the ANS Performance Profiler, and it's a great tool in my opinion, well worth the price. If you ever discover (and solve) a single annoying performance blocker with its help, it's more than worth its price - at least for professional devs (rather pricey for single home / hobby devs, I agree).

Answer 3

Good tools cost more money that lousy ones. From everything I've heard, seen and personally observed, RedGate produces good tools. Using lousy tools takes more of your time. How much that time is worth to you or your employer is something we cannot judge from the information you provided. In the Western world, a good tool pays itself back in only a few hours. That's an ROI that's hard to beat.

Do make sure you adjust that ROI by the amount of time you'll need to learn how to use the tool. You'll get a quick insight in that from spending an hour on the trial version.