Advantages of Telerik Silverlight controls

[Mikael]

Hi!

We are thinking about replacing our current web ui implementation, based on Telerik controls, with Silverlight.
On ASP.NET, it was an easy choice to pick 3rd party controls like Telerik´s, because they add so much to the ASP.NET controls.
With Silverlight, however, the controls that come with the standard package seem more feature-full. So, my question is this: what are the main advantages of using Telerik Silverlight controls instead of using the built-in Silverlight control?

Thanks!
/Fredrik

[Ben Hayat]

Hi Fredrik;

I have a hard time prioritizing my following lines, since they both want to be number one.
The following reasons would be my reasons of choice:

1) The BEST support!
2) Excellent product quality and rich features!

I wouldn't even give it second thought!

Oh btw, I'm not affiliated with telerik, just a happy customer ;-)
..Ben

[ManniAT]

Hi Fredrik,

I would use both :)
And I would add a third option to your question - competitors :)
Futher I guess there should be more precison in what are "built in controls".

What do we have out of the box?
Some basic controls and a thing called datagrid - but don't compare this to a "real grid" like teleriks.
Then there is the "new MS update way" - the Silverlight Toolkit.
I will not tell you about the hours I spent with this product - I just would ask you to see there forum's and issue tracker :)

So let's stay with the "out of the box" controls.
Since you talked about ASP.NET - what do you use there if you (for an example) want a user to enter a line of comment?
RadInput - or simply <asp:TextBox (or even <input runat="server"

I for my part do NOT use rad controls for this.
The simple reason is that there is no reason to use them :)

The things change at the moment where I (for an example) want the user to input a number between XX and YY.
A RadNumeric... would do a much better job than a normal textbox in this case.

So from my point of view I think there is no question between "out of the box" and telerik controls.
--Althoug there could be one if you make use of the Enhanced Routed Events Framework... :)

You are (were) right that some of the deaults are (have been) more featurefull than the telerik ones.
And I think this is the only reproach I could make to telerik - they have been a bit late - but I think with Q1 the things start to change.

There are a lot of things you won't find in the standards.
So the question could be - telerik, competitor, Toolkit?

I will not use to much words on competitors - of course they have their pros and cons.
For me there is one simple reason to stay with telerik - the great support.
Shit happens - bugs are a fact - missing features will always exist - BUT - the difference is how such things are handled.

What I learned over the year here at telerik - you will allways find a sympathetic ear when you have suggestions or problems.

With Q1 2009 I would describe the situation like this:
--There are competitors which have more functionality in SOME PARTS of their suites.
--The toolkit is something I would no suggest to use (my point of view!!!)
--When builtin controls do their job I use them - if I need advanced functionality I use the telerik controls.
--Even if I run projects without telerik controls - it feels good to have them in the toolbox :)


A last word (guessing you use ASP.NET / AJAX controls since a certain amount of time).
Every programmer or "suite builder" has it's own philosophy, his own style.
The hardest thing (for me) when working with any kind of 3rd party product is to understand their "kind of doing things".

I learned how telerik handles the things starting with ASP Navigation.
And from that moment on I feel familiar with their new products in a very short time.

To close like Ben:
I'm no telerik employee (or payed in any form by telerik).
I'm a mostly a hapyy customer.
I sometimes have problems with their controls - that's the time when I'm "not so polite" to their great support team :)

But I had the same thougths than you about their WPF / Silverlight things.
And since the "inner discussion" got's solved for me I wanted to spread my thoughts.

Regards

Manfred

[Mikael]

Thanks a lot for your feedback!