When building applications with .NET Core or modern .NET (6, 7, 8, 9), you’ll often rely on powerful third-party libraries to simplify development, improve performance, and enhance maintainability. While Microsoft provides a robust foundation, the .NET ecosystem is enriched by an extensive range of open-source NuGet packages. Below is a comprehensive list of commonly used and highly recommended non-Microsoft libraries that can significantly boost your productivity and project quality.
1. Core Utilities & Helpers
- LanguageExt – Brings functional programming concepts like Option, Either, and Try to C#. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}
- MoreLinq – Extends LINQ with over 100 additional operators and utilities.
- AutoMapper – Simplifies object-to-object mapping, ideal for DTOs and ViewModels. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}
- CSharpFunctionalExtensions – Functional programming tools like Result and Maybe for clean error handling.
- Humanizer – Makes text and time data more human-readable (e.g., “3 hours ago”).
2. Web Development & API
- FluentValidation – Elegant and fluent model validation framework. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}
- Swashbuckle.AspNetCore – Generates Swagger/OpenAPI documentation for ASP.NET Core APIs.
- Sieve – Adds filtering, sorting, and pagination support to APIs via query parameters.
- AspNetCoreRateLimit – Provides IP and client-based rate limiting for APIs.
- Newtonsoft.Json – Popular JSON serialization library, still widely used for flexible handling.
3. Data Access & ORM
- Dapper – Lightweight and super-fast micro ORM for raw SQL queries.
- SqlKata – Fluent SQL query builder supporting multiple databases.
- LiteDB – Embedded NoSQL database ideal for local or small-scale apps.
- Z.EntityFramework.Plus.EFCore – Adds caching, auditing, and filters to EF Core.
- Ardalis.Specification – Implements the specification pattern for repositories.
4. Security & Encryption
- BCrypt.Net-Next – Provides secure password hashing using the bcrypt algorithm.
- Sodium.Core – Modern cryptography library built on libsodium.
- Jwt.Net – Helps create, sign, and validate JSON Web Tokens manually.
5. Logging & Monitoring
- Serilog – The go-to structured logging framework for .NET. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}
- Serilog.Sinks.Seq – Log viewer for Serilog (requires the Seq server).
- Serilog.Sinks.Elasticsearch – Integrates logging directly with Elasticsearch.
- App.Metrics – Tracks metrics, health checks, and application performance.
6. Testing & Mocking
- xUnit – Widely used open-source testing framework.
- NUnit – Classic and feature-rich test framework for .NET.
- Moq – Most popular mocking library for unit testing.
- NSubstitute – Simpler syntax alternative to Moq.
- FluentAssertions – Provides human-readable, expressive assertions.
- Verify – Enables snapshot testing for objects, APIs, and JSON outputs.
7. Dependency Injection & Architecture
- Autofac – Advanced and flexible IoC container for .NET.
- Scrutor – Assembly scanning and decoration utilities for DI.
- ABP Framework – Modular application framework for enterprise apps.
- FeatureToggle – Simple library for enabling or disabling features dynamically.
8. Caching & Performance
- EasyCaching – Abstraction over multiple caching systems like Redis and Memcached.
- StackExchange.Redis – Official Redis client maintained by StackExchange.
- CacheManager.Core – Advanced multi-layer caching framework.
9. Messaging & Event Bus
- MassTransit – Enterprise-grade distributed application messaging framework.
- Rebus – Simple and lightweight service bus for .NE
Techy Chalkboard in bits and pieces 