When you open an unfamiliar .NET assembly, most decompilers show you code and leave you to scroll. We built Glass.NET around a different idea: reading someone else’s assembly should feel like reading your own source — you navigate it. Here’s how it compares to the tools you’re probably using today.
Same engine, different experience
First, the honest part: Glass.NET is built on ICSharpCode.Decompiler, the same engine that powers ILSpy. So the accuracy of the C# it produces is on par with ILSpy — and with dnSpy, which uses the same engine. This isn’t a “our decompilation is smarter” pitch. The C# is excellent because the engine is excellent, and we don’t pretend otherwise.
The difference is everything around the code — the workflow of actually reading a large, unfamiliar assembly.
What Glass adds
- Go to Definition (F12) — plus Ctrl+Click and double-click — on any symbol. References are resolved from the decompiler’s own syntax tree, so you land on the right symbol, not a text match.
- Find All References (Shift+F12) streaming into a Find Results panel.
- Go To All (Ctrl+T) — fuzzy quick-open across every type and member in the assembly.
- Call and type hierarchy — walk callers/callees and base/derived types.
- Navigation history and a namespace ▸ type ▸ member breadcrumb, so you always know where you are and can step back.
- Assembly Information view — select an assembly and see its full identity (name, version, culture, public-key token, strong-name status), PE/runtime traits (target framework, architecture, PE format), the product attributes (company, copyright, informational version…), referenced assemblies, embedded resources and metadata statistics — all in one place.
- C# and IL views, code folding, and matching dark and light themes.
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Export to a buildable project (in the app or via the
glass exportCLI), assembly compare with a line diff, and an exposure report that summarises what a given assembly reveals. - Real speed — lazy loading and off-thread decompilation keep it responsive on assemblies with thousands of types.
And it’s strictly static analysis — Glass reads metadata and IL and reconstructs C#; it never runs the assembly it inspects.
How it stacks up
Glass.NET ILSpy dnSpy dotPeek .NET Reflector Price Free Free Free Free Paid Engine ICSharpCode.Decompiler ICSharpCode.Decompiler ICSharpCode.Decompiler JetBrains Own Go to Definition / Find References ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Go To All (fuzzy) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Call / type hierarchy ✓ Partial ✓ ✓ ✓ Assembly-information view ✓ Partial Partial Partial Partial Export to buildable project ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Assembly compare + line diff ✓ — — — — Exposure report ✓ — — — — Live debugging / editing — — ✓ — — Actively developed ✓ ✓ Community fork ✓ ✓A fair word on the others: dnSpy is still unmatched for live debugging and editing of a managed binary — that’s a different job than reading one, and if you need it, reach for dnSpy (the original is archived; the community carries it on via dnSpyEx). dotPeek is a solid free reader from JetBrains, and ILSpy is the excellent open-source project whose engine we build on. Glass isn’t trying to replace the debugger; it’s trying to be the best tool for reading and understanding an assembly — fast.
Where Glass fits
Glass.NET is a developer tool for legitimate work: inspecting and debugging your own binaries, understanding a dependency you rely on, checking what an obfuscator actually produced, interoperability, security review, and recovering your own lost source. (Use it only on software you have the right to analyze.)
That last one — checking what an obfuscator produced — is why Glass and Nebula.NET sit well together. Protect a build with Nebula, open it in Glass, and see for yourself that the names are gone, the control flow is flattened, and the virtualized methods are just a VM call. The exposure report makes that a one-click check.
Free, forever
Glass.NET is completely free — no licence, no seats, no sign-up. Grab the latest build from the download page, open an assembly, and press F12.
Found a bug or have a feature request? Tell us — we’re actively building it.