Power up your .NET development
There is a proverb “You don’t have to reinvent the wheel”. Libraries are the best example of that. They help you to write complex and time-consuming functionality in an easy way. In our experience, a good project makes use of some of the best libraries available.
I do not think .NET needs any introduction. It is used to develop a wide variety of applications, including IoT devices, games, desktops and mobile apps, etc. Here I have compiled 7 useful .NET libraries that will help you in your development journey.
1. Metro
If you want to create WPF applications then this is a good resource for you. It allows developers to cobble together a better UI for their own WPF applications with minimal effort. It will override the default style of all common WPF controls and gives them a modern look. It also includes some custom controls based on concepts from Windows Phone, Windows 8, and Windows 10 (UWP) Apps. This library has more than 8.5k stars on GitHub.
GitHub - MahApps/MahApps.Metro: A framework that allows developers to cobble together a better UI…
A framework that allows developers to cobble together a better UI for their own WPF applications with minimal effort. …
github.com
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2. RestSharp
This is a lightweight HTTP client library. It’s a wrapper around HttpClient, not a full-fledged client on its own. It included lots of features like Default parameters of any kind, not just headers, Multiple ways to add a request body, including JSON, XML, and form data, Built-in serialization and deserialization of JSON and XML, and many more. It has more than 8.5k stars on GitHub.
GitHub - restsharp/RestSharp: Simple REST and HTTP API Client for .NET
RestSharp is a lightweight HTTP client library. It's a wrapper around HttpClient, not a full-fledged client on its own…
github.com
3. MonoGame
This is a simple and powerful .NET framework for creating games for desktop PCs, video game consoles, and mobile devices using the C# programming language. It has been successfully used to create games such as Streets of Rage 4, Carrion, Celeste, Stardew Valley, and many others. It has more than 9k stars on GitHub.
GitHub - MonoGame/MonoGame: One framework for creating powerful cross-platform games.
MonoGame is a simple and powerful .NET framework for creating games for desktop PCs, video game consoles, and mobile…
github.com
4. language-ext
This library uses and abuses the features of C# to provide a functional-programming ‘base class library’ that, if you squint, can look like extensions to the language itself. The desire here is to make programming in C# much more reliable and to make the engineer’s inertia flow in the direction of declarative and functional code rather than imperative. It has more than 5k stars on GitHub.
GitHub - louthy/language-ext: C# functional language extensions - a base class library for…
This library uses and abuses the features of C# to provide a functional-programming 'base class library' that, if you…
github.com
5. Sharpcompress
As the name suggests, this is a compression library that can unrar, un7zip, unzip, untar, unbzip2, ungzip and unlzip with forward-only reading and file random access APIs. It also provides support for zip/tar/bzip2/gzip/lzip. The major feature of this library is support for non-seekable streams so large files can be processed on the fly (i.e. download stream). It has more than 1.5k stars on GitHub.
GitHub - adamhathcock/sharpcompress: SharpCompress is a fully managed C# library to deal with many…
SharpCompress is a compression library in pure C# for .NET Standard 2.0, 2.1, .NET Core 3.1 and .NET 5.0 that can…
github.com
6. Opentk
This library is a fast, low-level C# binding for OpenGL, OpenGL ES, OpenAL, and OpenCL. It runs on all major platforms and powers hundreds of apps, games and scientific research. Use this library to add cross-platform 3d graphics, audio, computing, and haptics to your C# application. It has more than 2.5k stars on GitHub.
GitHub - opentk/opentk: The Open Toolkit library is a fast, low-level C# wrapper for OpenGL, OpenAL…
The Open Toolkit library is a fast, low-level C# wrapper for OpenGL, OpenAL & OpenCL. It also includes windowing…
github.com
7. Nodatime
Working with DateTime is one of the common tasks of a developer. This library provides an alternative date and time API. It helps you to think about your data more clearly, and express operations on that data more precisely. This library has more than 2k stars on GitHub.
GitHub - nodatime/nodatime: A better date and time API for .NET
Noda Time is an alternative date and time API for .NET. It helps you to think about your data more clearly, and express…
github.com
Are these still good choices in 2026?
Update, August 2026: All seven of these libraries remain established, widely used projects, and none of them would be an unreasonable choice today. That said, a couple of years is a long time in open source, so before adopting any third-party library we recommend a quick health check: look at recent releases and commit activity, open issue trends, licence terms and whether it supports the .NET version you are targeting (currently .NET 10). NuGet’s built-in package auditing also flags known vulnerabilities in your dependencies as part of a normal restore, which is worth having switched on.
It is also worth knowing that the .NET base libraries have kept absorbing common scenarios since this article was written. Built-in tar support has joined zip and gzip in System.IO.Compression and System.Formats.Tar, which covers many everyday archive tasks; HttpClient together with the System.Net.Http.Json extensions handles a lot of the simple REST calls people once reached for a wrapper library to make; and types such as DateOnly and TimeOnly have improved the built-in date and time story, although Noda Time’s richer model still earns its place in domains where time zones and calendars really matter. The general rule as of 2026: check what the platform gives you first, then add a library where it genuinely adds value. If you would like a second opinion on your project’s dependencies, our custom software development team is happy to help.
Where are some other awesome resources?
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