These should be standard in every XAML developer’s toolbox.

There are lots of controls that ship with Windows 8. But, let’s be honest, there are lots of controls that don’t ship with Windows 8, too. After a little review, I can’t help but consider the third party controls available, how nice they are, how supported they are, and now, how cheap they are.

Telerik has announced their “hobbyist” pricing for their top 12 controls. These are the core controls that developers ask about in the Visual Studio toolbox – like date picker, SQL Lite wrapper, and simple charting. Hobbyist pricing is a miserable $149. Seriously, it’s pennies if you think about it.

Look, it’s no use complaining that these controls are not already included in Visual Studio. We can’t change that – and waiting for them to show up can mean years or never. That’s why it’s cool to have control suites as an option. And why a cheaply prices suite is a great option for you.

Now, could you write these controls yourself? Of course you could. And, could you do as good a job as Telerik? Of course you could. But, why would you? Consider the hours of design, development, re-development, and testing they have invested. Those are hours you don’t have to invest.

I am a big fan of third party controls. Their cost is easily justifiable in the hours saved and the quality they deliver. A UI using a control suite is typically better and more rich. So don’t fight what makes the most sense. And for $149, don’t dork around with half-baked open source toys.