What are your experiences with NetAdvantage or DXperience?

Question

I'm looking into both of them, and while I have been quite pleased with NetAdvantage at my previous employer, I find the price point (plus testimonials like at What is the best winform UI component set?) to make me hesitate and consider DXExperience.

That said, I'm wondering:

• What your experiences are in field with either (or ideally both)?
• Would you be willing to spend your own hard earned money on either one?

This is for WinForms - and also a last question:

• Does DXperience have anything analogous to the UltraWinDataGrid? This grid is awesome -- and the absence of a reasonable competitor is a show stopper.

Note: This is not intended to incite a flame war, I am interested in experiences, and pragmatic advice.

Answer 1

We evaluated libraries from Syncfusion, Infragistics, ComponentOne, Xceed, Janus and DevExpress. We decided on DevExpress based on its feature set, grid performance and features and ribbon control features.

Comparing Infragistics and DevExpress Grid control I found that:

• DevExpress Grid is faster at loading, and handles more data, than the Infragistics grid.
  • 25K rows * 50 columns: Infragistics load time is 2000ms, DevExpress load time is 1400ms
  • 50K rows * 500 columns
    • Infragistics 600ms first load, 400ms subsequent
    • DevExpress 1000ms first load, 250ms subsequent load
  • 500K rows * 50 columns
    • Infragistsic 3500ms first load, 7000ms subsequent load
    • DevExpress 2000ms first load, 1700ms subsequent load
  • 2M rows * 10 columns
    • Infragistics Out of memory exception
    • DevExpress 8500ms first load, 10000ms subsequent load

The DevExpress DxGrid control for Windows Forms is fantastic. Inline editors make the UX very nice. The sorting and grouping is easy to use and understand for both the developer and end-user.

Overall I am extremely happy with the library. Their support is excellent. Over the life of this project, I have asked over 20 support questions and have received a good response each time.

I would spend my own money on the DevExpress controls.

Answer 2

The DevEx Grid is awesome, though I've got no experience with the UltraWinDataGrid.

Would I be willing to spend my own money on DevEx stuff? Yes, and I do - I've been using their stuff from way back in the Delphi days (maintained Delphi subscription for about 5 years, coming up 4 years for the .NET subscription now). They've got fabulous support and a very strong product line.

Edit: on the basis of what I've seen at the Infragistics site for their NetAdvantage WinGrid, the DevEx Grid can do all that and more. All the filtering, sorting, grouping and custom layout stuff you're probably used to, plus Card Layouts amd more. Plus, DevEx have a no-questions money-back guarantee if you're not happy with their stuff.

Honestly, I'm not a DevEx shill, just a really happy customer who - yes - pays his own money for their stuff :)