.NET Decompile Tools

For many needing a tool to decompile a .NET assembly, the tool of choice has been Red Gate's Reflector. This tool is one of the fastest tools out there and the decompiled code it displays is often somewhat intelligible (of course, THAT depends on the underlying quality of the code). But, recent changes to the licensing of Reflector have left many .NET developers scrambling for their wallets or for an alternative. Here's a few alternatives to .NET Reflector.

JetBrains DotPeek

This is my favorite replacement for .NET Reflector. It feels a little slower than Reflector, but the code it decompiles is very readable. Each variable that the decompiler has to name, it attempts to find a somewhat sensible name.

This tool will decompile the AssemblyInfo.cs as well, so any assembly properties will be available.

DotPeek requires .NET 4.0 but does not require registration.

Telerik JustDecompile

JustDecompile is comparable to DotPeek in many ways, but in the early build I tried, it did not decompile the AssemblyInfo.cs. While the variable names were also reasonably named, since it can't decompile the AssemblyInfo.cs file, JustDecompile is an incomplete replacement for Reflector.

JustDecompile does require free registration.

Conclusion

There are still other tools to decompile .NET code, but Reflector, DotPeek, and JustDecompile are all powerful tools that are supported by major vendors in the .NET ecosystem. As such, they bring a lot of clout to these solutions and have the support team in place to maintain such a tool. At the end of the day, JustDecompile lacks the ability to decompile the AssemblyInfo.cs. If this is important to you as it is to me, you will want to look at DotPeek instead.