Top .NET development companies (August 2026 List)

Buyer's GuideAug 12, 2026 · 23 min read

Short answer

Evaluating .NET development companies means checking for a production track record that spans more than ASP.NET web apps, transparent pricing, and real .NET Framework-to-.NET Core modernization work. RaftLabs meets that bar with .NET modernization delivered for Vodafone and Aldi, fixed-price engagements at $29-$49/hr, and a 4.9/5 rating on Clutch.

Key Takeaways

  • .NET is a platform, not a single framework. It spans ASP.NET Core for the web, WPF and .NET MAUI for desktop and cross-platform apps, and a runtime used for cloud-native microservices and background services. A vendor's ASP.NET portfolio alone does not prove they can build the rest of what '.NET development' actually covers.
  • According to the Stack Overflow 2025 Developer Survey, C# is used by 29.9% of professional developers, making it one of the most widely adopted languages in production enterprise software today.
  • The most expensive .NET hiring mistake is choosing a vendor based on their biggest-name client instead of checking whether their evidence sits in your industry. A firm with strong aerospace .NET credentials is not automatically the right pick for a healthcare claims platform.
  • Legacy .NET Framework modernization requires a different skill set than a greenfield ASP.NET Core build. Ask any shortlisted vendor to walk through a specific migration project, not just new development work.
  • RaftLabs ranks third as the strongest fixed-price option for mid-market companies that need one accountable team across the full .NET platform, not just a web front end.

Search for a ".NET development company" and most of what comes back is really an ASP.NET web development company with a broader label attached. That mismatch causes real problems. The .NET platform covers a lot more than web pages: WPF and .NET MAUI for desktop and cross-platform clients, a runtime used heavily for cloud-native microservices and background services, and deep integration with Azure, SQL Server, and the rest of the Microsoft stack that most enterprise buyers are already running on. A company evaluating vendors for a project that includes a desktop tool, a Windows service, or a set of internal APIs alongside a web front end needs a different kind of evidence than a company that only needs an ASP.NET site. This list is built around that broader test. The confusion has a practical cost: a buyer who scopes a project as "we need a .NET developer" and hires purely on ASP.NET portfolio strength often discovers, three weeks into the build, that the vendor's actual bench has never shipped a Windows service, never touched .NET MAUI, and has no opinion on how a background job queue should talk to the same database as the web front end. None of that shows up in a Clutch review that only asks about communication and timeliness. It shows up in a mid-project scramble to bring in a subcontractor for the piece the original vendor quietly assumed someone else would handle. The firms on this list were chosen specifically because their evidence extends past a single slice of the platform.

The eight .NET development companies on this list are ELEKS, ScienceSoft, RaftLabs, Intellias, Andersen, DICEUS, Sigma Software Group, and Perficient. RaftLabs is on this list. We wrote our own entry with the same directness we applied to everyone else.

How we evaluated this list

Every firm below was checked against the same five criteria, in the same order, before a single line of the company profiles got written. A firm that scored well on brand recognition but thin on verifiable platform breadth did not make the cut, regardless of how often its name came up in other buyer's guides.

CriterionWhat we looked for
Production track recordAt least one live .NET application built by this company, in production, with verifiable usage, client names, or documented outcomes
Technical depthEvidence of real architecture work on the .NET platform, not just CRUD scaffolding, including a documented approach to integrations and data-layer design
Pricing transparencyA published hourly rate range or a clear project-cost signal, not "contact us for a quote" as the only answer
Client profile fitA track record with businesses of a similar size and industry to the buyers reading this list
Platform breadthWhether the firm's .NET work spans more than one slice of the platform, web, desktop, or cloud-native services, rather than a single narrow specialty labeled ".NET"

No company paid for placement on this list.

The 8 companies

1. ELEKS

ELEKS is a global technology consultancy founded in 1991, with headquarters registered in Tallinn, Estonia and delivery teams spread across Europe and the US. Few firms on any .NET shortlist can point to more than three decades of continuous delivery, and ELEKS uses that history to sell a specific pitch: a full-cycle engineering partner that can carry a .NET project from architecture through long-term support, not a team that disappears after the initial build ships.

The firm's technology practice spans .NET alongside Java, big data, mobile, and DevOps, with roughly 400 developers working across these stacks. That range matters for a company evaluating .NET specifically, since ELEKS pairs its .NET architecture work with certifications, HITRUST, ISO 27001, SOC 2, and CREST, that regulated-industry buyers in healthcare and finance tend to ask for directly. Client feedback on Clutch consistently cites high-quality delivery and communication, with a smaller number of reviewers flagging pricing as elevated relative to comparable firms. The firm's Estonia registration alongside its Ukraine-founded engineering base gives it an EU legal footing that some regulated buyers specifically require before signing a data-processing agreement, a detail that matters more than it sounds once a project touches customer financial or health data.

Notable work -- ELEKS lists more than 120 active client accounts, including Fortune 500 companies, spanning fintech, insurance, logistics, and healthcare. Named clients referenced in the firm's own materials include DPD in logistics and multiple life sciences and insurance platforms built for long-term clients. The firm has delivered more than 1,000 end-to-end projects over its history, a track record that a newer firm cannot match regardless of current team quality.

Pricing signal -- $50-$99/hr, with a minimum project size around $25,000. Individual project costs on Clutch range from $10,000 to more than $4 million, reflecting a client base that spans focused engagements to multi-year platform programs.

What to watch -- A handful of client reviews note that ELEKS's pricing sits above some regional competitors for comparable scope. The firm is the right call when the regulatory certifications and three-decade track record matter more than being the lowest-cost option on the shortlist. For a company that just needs a small, fast .NET utility built and shipped, the firm's process overhead, built for larger, longer-running engagements, may add more structure than the project actually needs.

  • Best for: Regulated-industry companies that want a long-tenured Microsoft-ecosystem partner with formal security certifications behind the .NET build

  • Specialization: Enterprise .NET architecture, regulated-industry compliance, full-cycle software engineering

  • Pricing: $50-$99/hr, projects from $25K

  • Clutch: 4.8/5 (31 reviews)


2. ScienceSoft

ScienceSoft is an IT consulting and software development company headquartered in McKinney, Texas, founded in 1989, with delivery teams across Europe. The firm has spent 37 years specifically in C# and .NET programming, a claim few competitors on this list can make, and it backs that claim with an in-house architecture and solutions center of excellence dedicated to .NET projects.

The firm's .NET practice covers the breadth this list is built to test: .NET Framework, .NET Core, WPF, Windows Forms, and Xamarin on the client side, plus Azure-based microservices, multi-tenancy, and Domain-Driven Design patterns on the backend. ScienceSoft's client roster includes a 10-plus-year engagement history with major life sciences companies, GSK and AstraZeneca among them, work that requires the kind of compliance-aware architecture that regulated buyers specifically look for. The firm also runs DevOps toolchains across Azure DevOps, Docker, and Kubernetes as a standard part of its .NET delivery, rather than treating deployment automation as a separate line item a client has to request.

Notable work -- ScienceSoft built a loan management system for Atlas Credit that was recognized as "Best-in-Class Loan Management System" at the Global FinTech Innovation Awards 2025. The firm has also delivered GAMP4-compliant pharmaceutical manufacturing automation and Azure-based investment management software for family offices, evidence of .NET work that spans manufacturing, fintech, and life sciences rather than a single vertical.

Pricing signal -- $50-$99/hr, with a minimum project size around $5,000, one of the more accessible entry points among the established firms on this list. ScienceSoft offers time-and-materials, fixed-price, and capped time-and-materials models, and states cost savings of 20 to 50 percent versus alternatives through component reuse and DevOps practices, though it does not publish a specific project-cost range.

What to watch -- ScienceSoft is a mid-size firm, 250 to 999 employees, smaller than several other names on this list. For a program that needs 30-plus concurrent .NET engineers, confirm bench depth before committing to a fixed timeline. The firm's low $5,000 minimum project size also means its client base spans a wide range of project sizes, so ask specifically how a team gets staffed for a project at the smaller end of that range versus a multi-year platform build.

  • Best for: Companies in life sciences, fintech, or manufacturing that need a .NET partner with decades of specifically C#-focused delivery history

  • Specialization: .NET architecture across web, desktop, and Azure cloud, life sciences and fintech compliance

  • Pricing: $50-$99/hr, projects from $5K

  • Clutch: 4.8/5 (42 reviews)


3. RaftLabs

RaftLabs is a custom software development studio for mid-market businesses, and .NET is one of the backend stacks its engineers ship regularly, alongside Node.js and Python, depending on what a client's existing environment and team actually need. The firm treats .NET as a platform choice made per project, not a brand identity, which shows up in how it scopes work: an enterprise client already running SQL Server and Azure gets a .NET recommendation because it genuinely reduces integration cost, not because .NET is the only stack on the menu.

That practical approach shows most clearly in the firm's modernization work. RaftLabs has delivered legacy .NET codebase modernization for enterprise clients including Vodafone and Aldi, part of a broader nine-year history that also covers PHP, Java, and ColdFusion migrations across healthcare, retail, and enterprise platforms. The pattern is consistent across that work: an honest codebase audit before any commitment, a fixed scope agreed per phase, and the existing .NET system kept live while components get replaced underneath it.

Notable work -- Beyond the Vodafone and Aldi .NET modernization work, RaftLabs has shipped enterprise .NET applications with the access-control and audit requirements line-of-business software typically carries: role-based access, audit trails, and single sign-on built into the architecture from the start rather than retrofitted before launch. Engagements are led directly by a founder, and every project runs on two-week sprints so a client sees working software early. That cadence is a deliberate choice for a firm sized the way RaftLabs is: a 60-person team cannot compete with a 3,500-person firm on raw headcount, so the pitch instead is speed of visible progress and a shorter chain of command between the person writing code and the person who signed the statement of work.

Pricing signal -- $29-$49/hr, fixed-price engagements. A typical .NET build, covering architecture, application development, integrations, and production deployment, runs $40,000 to $150,000 depending on scope; a .NET Framework-to-.NET Core migration adds time for the codebase audit phase before a fixed quote gets issued.

What to watch -- RaftLabs is a 60-person firm. Large enterprise programs that need 20 or more concurrent .NET engineers across parallel workstreams exceed what the team can staff, and a company set on a single-vendor, multi-technology transformation program spanning .NET, data platforms, and AI at once will find a firm like Perficient better resourced for that scale. What RaftLabs does well: a defined-scope .NET build or a legacy modernization, delivered by one accountable team, on a fixed timeline, with outcomes agreed before work starts, and a founder in the room for the scoping call rather than a sales rep who hands the project to someone else once the contract is signed.

  • Best for: Mid-market businesses that need a new .NET application or a legacy .NET modernization delivered by one accountable team at a fixed price

  • Specialization: .NET application development, legacy .NET modernization, enterprise access-control and compliance architecture

  • Pricing: $29-$49/hr, fixed-price engagements

  • Clutch: 4.9/5 (50+ verified reviews)


4. Intellias

Intellias is an engineering and digital solutions partner founded in 2002, operating from offices in Kraków, Lviv, Málaga, Lisbon, and Guildford, with roughly 1,000 to 5,000 employees across 23 offices in 17 countries. The firm's defining trait is an automotive and mobility practice that the company describes as powering navigation systems in 170 million vehicles worldwide, a scale of embedded and connected-systems delivery that most .NET-focused firms on this list do not attempt.

.NET sits inside that broader engineering practice rather than as a standalone specialty; the firm's own job postings describe backend engineers with "strong .NET expertise" working on trading platform and connected-vehicle capabilities. For a buyer whose .NET project touches vehicle telemetry, real-time data pipelines, or a platform that has to integrate with automotive or industrial hardware, that adjacent expertise is a genuine advantage over a firm whose experience is purely web and business-application-focused.

Notable work -- Intellias's published client list includes Cricut, HERE, Syngenta, HelloFresh, Travis Perkins, TomTom, and Swissquote, spanning automotive, agritech, consumer goods, and fintech. The firm's automotive and mobility work is its most distinctive credential, alongside a presence in financial services, healthcare, retail, and iGaming. Its own job postings for .NET roles specifically reference trading-platform capabilities, evidence that the firm's .NET practice extends into financial services engineering as well as the automotive work it is best known for.

Pricing signal -- $50-$99/hr, with a minimum project size around $50,000, one of the higher entry points among the mid-tier firms on this list. Individual project costs on Clutch range from $5,000 to more than $2 million.

What to watch -- Intellias's strongest evidence sits in automotive and mobility engineering. A .NET buyer with a straightforward line-of-business application, no connected-device or embedded-systems component, will find some of that specialized depth going unused relative to the price point. The firm's $50,000 minimum project size also puts it out of reach for smaller, focused .NET engagements.

  • Best for: Companies building .NET systems that connect to vehicles, embedded hardware, or high-scale mobility data platforms

  • Specialization: .NET backend development, automotive and mobility engineering, connected-systems architecture

  • Pricing: $50-$99/hr, projects from $50K

  • Clutch: 4.9/5 (30 reviews)


5. Andersen

Andersen is a global software development company founded in 2007 and headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, with more than 3,500 specialists across 16 development centers worldwide. The firm's scale sets it apart from most of the boutique studios on this list: Andersen has delivered more than 1,000 completed projects, and its size means a .NET program can draw on backend, frontend, QA, and DevOps specialists inside a single organization rather than coordinating across separate vendors.

.NET is one of Andersen's core backend practices, listed alongside custom software development, IT managed services, and IT strategy consulting in the firm's service breakdown. Client reviews on Clutch, 129 verified reviews at last count, one of the largest review bases of any firm on this list, consistently cite communication, timely delivery, and adaptability to shifting requirements as strengths, which matters for a buyer worried about losing visibility inside a 3,500-person organization.

Notable work -- Andersen's public case material and review base reflect delivery across a broad industry spread rather than a single named flagship client, consistent with a firm whose model is built around large-scale dedicated-team engagements rather than a small number of headline projects. The firm holds "Premier Verified" status on Clutch, which confirms legal registration and financial standing through a third-party credit check, a signal that carries more weight for a buyer doing procurement diligence on a firm they have not worked with before.

Pricing signal -- $50-$99/hr, with a minimum project size around $50,000. Andersen's engagement model leans toward dedicated teams and long-term managed services rather than fixed, one-off project quotes, and the firm's 16-center footprint means it can shift developer capacity between locations as a project scales without a full restaffing cycle.

What to watch -- At 3,500-plus employees, Andersen's account structure and internal processes are built for enterprise-scale, multi-year engagements. A company with a narrowly scoped six-week .NET project may find the onboarding process heavier than the work itself, and should ask directly how many of the assigned engineers have worked together on a previous .NET project before this one.

  • Best for: Companies that want a large, internally staffed .NET team for a long-term dedicated engagement rather than a boutique project vendor

  • Specialization: .NET backend development, IT managed services, large-scale dedicated-team delivery

  • Pricing: $50-$99/hr, projects from $50K

  • Clutch: 4.9/5 (129 reviews)


6. DICEUS

DICEUS is a custom software development company founded in 2011, with a US corporate entity registered in Wilmington, Delaware and delivery teams operating across Ukraine, Poland, and Denmark. The firm's practice is deliberately narrow by industry: insurance, banking, fintech, healthcare, logistics, and retail, with a particularly deep insurance-technology division covering policy administration, underwriting, and claims management systems.

.NET and .NET Core are core listed offerings in DICEUS's services, and the firm's insurance and fintech client base gives its .NET architecture work a specific compliance orientation that generalist firms sometimes underestimate. Named clients including Raiffeisen Bank, UNIQA, VIG, and Willis Towers Watson point to a real track record in regulated financial and insurance software, not just a services page claim.

Notable work -- DICEUS states it has delivered 150 successful projects, with named clients spanning major European banking and insurance groups. The firm holds partnerships with Microsoft, Google Cloud, and Oracle, and maintains ISO compliance certifications relevant to the regulated industries it serves. Its insurance-technology division covers policy administration, underwriting, and claims platforms specifically, rather than treating insurance software as one project type among many unrelated verticals.

Pricing signal -- $25-$49/hr, with a minimum project size around $10,000, among the more accessible rate cards for a firm with this level of regulated-industry client evidence.

What to watch -- At 50 to 249 employees, DICEUS is smaller than most other firms on this list. Its industry focus is a strength for insurance, banking, and fintech buyers and a weaker fit for a .NET project entirely outside those verticals, where the firm's domain-specific process may add overhead the project does not need. Confirm current bench availability directly, since a boutique firm with a strong regulated-industry reputation can book out several months in advance.

  • Best for: Insurance, banking, and fintech companies that need a .NET partner with regulated-industry domain knowledge built in

  • Specialization: .NET and .NET Core development, insurance and banking platforms, compliance-aware architecture

  • Pricing: $25-$49/hr, projects from $10K

  • Clutch: 4.9/5 (49 reviews)


7. Sigma Software Group

Sigma Software Group is a technology company founded in 2002 and headquartered in Lviv, Ukraine, with more than 1,000 employees across 20-plus office locations spanning Europe, North America, Asia, and Latin America. The firm's industry list is distinctive among .NET shortlists: aerospace, aviation, defense, automotive, and AdTech sit alongside more familiar healthcare, finance, and logistics work.

That industry spread matters for a specific kind of buyer. Aerospace and defense software carries safety and certification requirements that most commercial .NET shops never encounter, and a firm that has built for those industries brings a level of process discipline, documentation, testing rigor, that transfers well to any .NET project with strict compliance or safety requirements, even outside those specific sectors.

Notable work -- Sigma Software's published service lines include AI-powered software delivery, data and analytics, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and embedded and IoT systems, alongside its core custom software development practice. Client reviews on Clutch highlight the firm's project management and its ability to adapt to changing requirements across a client base spanning transportation, healthcare, and banking. One reviewer, a CMO at a SaaS advertising platform, specifically credited the firm's "mix of efficiency, creativity, and collaborative spirit" for standing out from the earliest stage of the engagement.

Pricing signal -- $50-$99/hr, with a minimum project size around $50,000. Sigma Software's scale, more than 1,000 employees, positions it for programs larger than a single focused .NET application, and its 20-plus office footprint gives it more time-zone coverage than most boutique firms on this list.

What to watch -- Sigma Software's most distinctive credentials sit in aerospace, aviation, and defense. A company building a standard business application will find that specific depth less directly relevant, though the underlying process discipline, structured testing, documentation practices built for safety-certified software, still applies and can be a genuine advantage for any project with strict compliance requirements.

  • Best for: Companies in aerospace, aviation, defense, or automotive that need a .NET partner familiar with safety-critical and certification-heavy software processes

  • Specialization: .NET development, embedded and IoT systems, aerospace and automotive software engineering

  • Pricing: $50-$99/hr, projects from $50K

  • Clutch: 4.8/5 (37 reviews)


8. Perficient

Perficient is a digital consultancy founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas and headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, with approximately 7,000 employees. The firm traded publicly on Nasdaq for more than two decades before being acquired by the private equity firm EQT AB in an all-cash deal completed in October 2024, a transaction that valued the company at roughly $3 billion. Its scale places it well above every other firm on this list, and its business model reflects that: enterprise digital transformation programs, not standalone .NET projects.

Perficient holds Microsoft AI Cloud Partner status and was appointed to Microsoft's 2025-2026 AI Inner Circle, an elite tier inside Microsoft's partner ecosystem. The firm states more than 20 years of experience delivering solutions across the Microsoft Cloud, spanning .NET applications on Azure, Azure Kubernetes Service, and Azure Spring Cloud, alongside multiplatform capabilities in Oracle, NodeJS, PHP, and Python. That breadth signals a firm built to run a .NET modernization as one workstream inside a much larger cloud transformation program, not a boutique that lives and breathes .NET exclusively.

Notable work -- Perficient's acquisition history includes Clarity Consulting in 2017, made specifically to deepen its Microsoft-ecosystem expertise. The firm's current positioning centers on AI-ready application engineering, Azure foundation security, and Copilot and agent deployment layered on top of existing enterprise .NET and Microsoft Cloud environments. That positioning reflects where a large share of enterprise .NET spend is actually going in 2026: not new greenfield builds, but modernizing existing .NET estates so they can support AI-assisted workflows without a full platform rewrite.

Pricing signal -- Perficient does not maintain an active Clutch profile with a published rate card. Engagements are typically structured as multi-workstream enterprise consulting programs, priced through a scoping process rather than a standard hourly quote, consistent with a firm whose business model is built around Fortune 500 digital transformation budgets rather than fixed-scope project quotes.

What to watch -- Perficient's scale and Microsoft partner tier make sense for a large enterprise running a multi-year Azure and .NET transformation program. A company that needs a single, defined-scope .NET application built quickly will find the sales process and program structure heavier than the project warrants, and should ask early how the firm's post-acquisition integration with EQT AB has affected account continuity for existing Microsoft-ecosystem clients.

  • Best for: Large enterprises running a multi-year Microsoft Cloud and .NET transformation program that needs a single accountable systems integrator

  • Specialization: Enterprise .NET modernization, Azure cloud transformation, Microsoft Copilot and AI integration

  • Pricing: Custom quote, enterprise consulting engagement

  • Clutch: Not on Clutch -- verify via direct reference


Side-by-side comparison

CompanyPrimary strengthTypical engagementPricing
ELEKSThree-decade track record, formal security certifications$25K-$4M+$50-99/hr
ScienceSoft37 years of C#/.NET focus, life sciences and fintech depth$5K+$50-99/hr
RaftLabs.NET builds and legacy modernization, fixed price$40K-$150K$29-49/hr
IntelliasAutomotive and connected-systems .NET engineering$50K-$2M+$50-99/hr
AndersenLarge-scale dedicated .NET teams, 3,500+ specialists$50K+$50-99/hr
DICEUSRegulated insurance and fintech .NET platforms$10K+$25-49/hr
Sigma Software GroupAerospace, aviation, and defense-grade .NET process discipline$50K+$50-99/hr
PerficientEnterprise Azure and .NET transformation programsCustom, multi-yearCustom quote

Read the pricing column against the engagement column, not on its own. A $25-$49/hr rate on a firm built for six-figure dedicated-team engagements is not automatically cheaper than a $50-$99/hr rate on a firm that will scope a $15,000 focused build; the total cost depends on how the engagement is structured, not the hourly number in isolation.

The question that separates an industry specialist from a platform generalist

The most common mistake buyers make when shortlisting .NET vendors is treating a firm's biggest-name client as proof they are the right fit, without checking whether that evidence sits inside the buyer's own industry. A firm with a strong track record building aerospace certification systems is not automatically the right choice for a healthcare claims platform, even if both projects run on .NET and both firms show up on the same Clutch search.

Industry specialists build deep domain knowledge in one or two verticals and apply it directly to every .NET engagement. DICEUS operates this way in insurance and banking, Sigma Software Group in aerospace, aviation, and defense, and Intellias in automotive and connected mobility. These firms bring compliance patterns, domain data models, and process discipline specific to their sector, work that a generalist firm would otherwise have to learn from scratch on the buyer's dime.

Platform generalists apply .NET architecture patterns across a wide range of industries without one dominant specialty. ELEKS, ScienceSoft, Andersen, Perficient, and RaftLabs all fall here, each with client work spanning healthcare, finance, retail, and manufacturing rather than a single vertical. The tradeoff is the mirror image of the specialist model: broader flexibility, less pre-built domain knowledge for any one industry's specific compliance requirements.

Neither model is better in the abstract. An insurance company building a new claims platform gets real value from DICEUS's existing understanding of underwriting workflows and regulatory data handling, value that would take a generalist firm several unbilled weeks to accumulate on its own. A manufacturing company building an internal inventory system gets little from that same insurance-specific knowledge and is better served by a generalist firm that can move faster because it is not carrying assumptions from a different industry. The practical test is simple: ask a shortlisted vendor to describe the last three .NET projects they shipped. If all three sit in one industry, you are talking to a specialist. If they span several, you are talking to a generalist. Neither answer should disqualify a vendor on its own, but it should change which questions you ask next.

Getting the model wrong is more expensive than getting the vendor wrong.

"We are continuing the journey of unifying the .NET platform, with a single framework that extends from cloud to desktop to mobile and beyond." -- Scott Hunter, Director of Program Management, .NET team at Microsoft, from the official ".NET 5 Preview 4 and our journey to one .NET" announcement

According to the Stack Overflow 2025 Developer Survey, C# is used by 29.9% of professional developers, one of the widest-adopted languages in production enterprise software. That figure includes far more than web development. C# is the language behind ASP.NET Core web applications, WPF and .NET MAUI desktop and cross-platform clients, Unity game engines, and a large share of enterprise backend services running on Azure. A vendor's C# and .NET experience should be evaluated against that full range, not assumed to mean web development by default.

That adoption number also changes the hiring-risk math for a buyer choosing between an offshore boutique and a larger domestic firm. A language and platform used by close to a third of professional developers has a talent pool deep enough that "we cannot find anyone who understands this codebase" is a solvable problem years after the original vendor moves on, provided the original build followed conventional .NET patterns instead of idiosyncratic ones. That is exactly why the platform-breadth question matters more than it first appears. A .NET codebase built entirely around one vendor's unusual conventions is expensive to hand off to a second team later, no matter how large the talent pool nominally is.

Five questions to ask before signing

None of these questions require a technical co-founder to ask or to evaluate the answer. They are built to be asked by whoever owns the vendor relationship, and to expose the gap between a firm that talks about .NET broadly and one whose actual delivery has stayed inside a single narrow slice of the platform.

1. Can you show me something you built on .NET that is not a website?

A desktop tool, a background service, a set of internal APIs, anything that demonstrates the vendor's .NET practice covers more than ASP.NET pages. A firm whose entire portfolio is websites has an ASP.NET practice with a .NET label attached, not a full-platform .NET practice. That distinction matters if your project includes anything beyond a web front end. If the answer is a long pause followed by "we could build that," treat it as a capability gap, not a formality.

2. What .NET version does your team default to for new projects in 2026?

Modern .NET, .NET 8, .NET 9, and beyond, is what any current project should target. A team still defaulting to .NET Framework 4.8 for new work, rather than reserving it for legacy extension only, has not kept its practice current. This is a fast, specific question with a clear right and wrong answer, and a vendor who hesitates or answers with "whichever version you prefer" has not formed an opinion because they have not shipped enough recent .NET work to need one.

3. Walk me through a specific .NET Framework-to-.NET Core migration you've completed.

Any firm that genuinely does modernization work will have a specific story: what broke, what took longer than expected, and how they handled undocumented business logic. A vendor who answers in generalities, "we've done a lot of migrations," without a specific example, is describing an aspiration rather than a track record. Ask what percentage of the original codebase ended up rewritten versus ported, since that ratio tells you how much of the estimate was guesswork.

4. How does your team handle a .NET project that touches more than one part of the platform?

If your project needs a web API, a background worker service, and a desktop admin tool, ask how the vendor structures that work across their team. A firm with genuine platform breadth will describe a coherent architecture across all three, usually sharing a data layer and a common set of internal libraries between the pieces. A firm whose real expertise is narrowly web-focused will describe treating the non-web pieces as an afterthought, or worse, as something they plan to subcontract without telling you upfront.

5. Who is actually assigned to my project, by name, three months from now?

Ask for names, not roles. Then check tenure on LinkedIn. High engineer turnover mid-project is one of the biggest drivers of .NET codebases that quietly drift from their original architecture, since each new engineer makes slightly different decisions than the one before them. A vendor who answers this question with specific names and specific tenure has account stability; one who answers with "our senior team" does not.

The verdict

The right .NET development company depends on what part of the platform your project actually needs, and how closely your industry matches the vendor's existing evidence.

ELEKS for a long-tenured Microsoft-ecosystem partner with formal security certifications for regulated industries.

ScienceSoft for three-plus decades of specifically C#-focused delivery across web, desktop, and cloud .NET workloads.

RaftLabs for a fixed-price .NET build or legacy modernization delivered by one accountable team.

Intellias for a .NET project that touches automotive, connected devices, or high-scale mobility data.

Andersen for a large, internally staffed .NET team on a long-term dedicated engagement.

DICEUS for a regulated insurance or banking .NET platform with domain compliance built in from the first sprint.

Sigma Software Group for a .NET project with aerospace, aviation, defense, or other safety-critical process requirements.

Perficient for a large enterprise running a multi-year Azure and .NET transformation program.

The mistake most buyers make is searching for ".NET development company" and evaluating every result as if they were interchangeable web shops. Write down what your project actually needs, web front end, desktop client, background services, cloud-native architecture, before you open a single vendor's portfolio. Then use the five questions above on a call, not a services page, to confirm the match before the contract is signed. A vendor's homepage lists every capability it might plausibly sell; a 30-minute conversation about a specific project they shipped, on the specific slice of the .NET platform your project needs, is the closest you will get to evidence before that contract exists.


RaftLabs builds .NET applications across web, backend, and enterprise architecture, and modernizes legacy .NET systems with one accountable team, not a rotating cast of subcontractors. 4.9/5 on Clutch. Talk to a founder about your .NET project.

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Frequently asked questions

A focused .NET Core API or internal tool costs $15,000 to $40,000. A full enterprise application with authentication, integrations, and a database layer runs $40,000 to $150,000. A platform with multi-tenancy, single sign-on, and compliance requirements costs $150,000 to $500,000 or more. A legacy .NET Framework to .NET 8 or .NET 9 migration typically adds 20 to 40 percent on top of a comparable greenfield build, since the team has to reverse-engineer undocumented business logic before rebuilding it. Hourly rates for .NET specialists range from $25-$49/hr at mid-market studios in Eastern Europe to $150-$199/hr at premium North American Microsoft-ecosystem consultancies. The rate alone tells you less than the team's actual .NET version currency and the breadth of what they have shipped on the platform.
A single .NET Core API or admin tool takes six to ten weeks. A full application with a database, authentication, and third-party integrations takes twelve to twenty weeks. An enterprise .NET platform with role-based access, audit trails, and multiple integrations takes six to nine months. A legacy .NET Framework to .NET Core migration for a mid-size application takes three to six months, depending on how much of the original business logic is documented. Timelines slip most often when the vendor discovers undocumented dependencies mid-project, which is why a codebase audit before a fixed-price quote is worth insisting on for any modernization work.
.NET is the broader platform and runtime, covering web development through ASP.NET Core, desktop and cross-platform apps through WPF and .NET MAUI, cloud-native microservices, background services, and even game development through Unity's use of C#. ASP.NET, and specifically ASP.NET Core, is the web application framework built on top of .NET. Every ASP.NET application is a .NET application, but most .NET development work is not ASP.NET at all. A company searching for a '.NET development company' when what they actually need is a web application should confirm the vendor's ASP.NET Core depth specifically. A company that needs a desktop tool, a background service, or a cloud-native system built alongside a web front end needs a vendor whose .NET practice covers more than web pages.
.NET Framework is Microsoft's original runtime, built for Windows only, and now in maintenance mode with no new feature development planned. Modern .NET, the unified runtime that started with .NET 5 and continues through .NET 8, .NET 9, and beyond, runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS, and is the version Microsoft actively develops and supports. Any new .NET project started today should target a current, supported .NET version, not .NET Framework, unless it is specifically extending an existing legacy .NET Framework application that cannot yet be migrated. A vendor who cannot explain this distinction clearly in a first conversation likely has not done recent .NET work.
Ask for a live URL or a working demo of something they built on .NET that is not a website, a desktop tool, a background service, an API used by another system, to confirm their practice covers more than ASP.NET pages. Ask what .NET version their default new project targets in 2026; a team still defaulting to .NET Framework 4.8 has not kept its practice current. Ask them to walk through a specific .NET Framework-to-.NET Core migration they completed, including what broke during the process. Ask who is actually assigned to your project, by name, and how long that person has been with the company. Vendors with specific, technical answers to all four have shipped real, current .NET work across more than one slice of the platform.
RaftLabs builds .NET applications and modernizes legacy .NET systems as part of a broader custom software practice, with production .NET modernization work delivered for enterprise clients including Vodafone and Aldi. Engagements are fixed-price, agreed before development starts, with a working build shipped every two weeks and full code ownership at handoff. $29-$49/hr. 4.9/5 on Clutch across 50+ verified reviews. RaftLabs is a strong fit for mid-market companies that need one accountable team for a .NET build, a legacy modernization, and the surrounding product work; it is not sized for enterprise programs running 20 or more concurrent engineers across parallel workstreams.

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