Introduction

dotTrace is arguably the most convenient tool for .NET performance profiling.

dotTrace lets you find performance bottlenecks in a variety of .NET applications, including applications based on .NET Framework, .NET Core, .NET, Mono, and the Unity version of Mono.

For more information about dotTrace system requirements, refer to this page.

dotTrace versions

dotTrace is available in different forms:

As a standalone application
As a console (command-line) tool
Integrated in Microsoft Visual Studio
Integrated in JetBrains Rider *

Supported CPU architectures

CPU	Standalone	Command-line tool	Profiler in JetBrains Rider
x86, x64	Windows: x86 and x64 Linux: x64 only. Only Alpine 3.13–3.15 is supported macOS: x64 See details	Windows: x86 and x64 Linux (glibc and musl-based): x64 only macOS: x64	Windows, Linux, macOS: x64 only
ARM	Windows: arm32 and arm64. Windows 11: .NET 5.0–7.0 only Linux (glibc-based only): arm64 only macOS: arm64 (Apple Silicon). macOS 12 Monterey and later: .NET 6.0–7.0 only	Windows: arm64 only Linux (musl-based): arm64 only Linux (glibc-based): arm32 and arm64. GLIBC_2.23 or later macOS: arm64 (Apple Silicon). macOS 12 Monterey and later: .NET 6.0–7.0 only	Windows, Linux, macOS: arm64 only

CPU

Standalone

Command-line tool

Profiler in JetBrains Rider

x86, x64

Windows: x86 and x64
Linux: x64 only. Only Alpine 3.13–3.15 is supported
macOS: x64

See details

Windows: x86 and x64
Linux (glibc and musl-based): x64 only
macOS: x64

Windows, Linux, macOS: x64 only

ARM

Windows: arm32 and arm64. Windows 11: .NET 5.0–7.0 only
Linux (glibc-based only): arm64 only
macOS: arm64 (Apple Silicon). macOS 12 Monterey and later: .NET 6.0–7.0 only

Windows: arm64 only
Linux (musl-based): arm64 only
Linux (glibc-based): arm32 and arm64. GLIBC_2.23 or later
macOS: arm64 (Apple Silicon). macOS 12 Monterey and later: .NET 6.0–7.0 only

Windows, Linux, macOS: arm64 only

Supported frameworks for x86 and x64 CPUs

	Windows	macOS \| Linux
Native	Available in: JetBrains Rider, Visual Studio, standalone, console tool Supported profiling types: Timeline.
.NET Framework 1.0 – 4.8	Available in: JetBrains Rider, Visual Studio, standalone, console tool Supported profiling types: Timeline, Sampling, Tracing, Line-by-Line. Notes: You can attach only to .NET Framework 4.0 or later processes.
.NET Core 1.0 – 3.1 .NET 5 – 7	Available in: JetBrains Rider, Visual Studio, standalone, console tool Supported profiling types: Timeline, Sampling, Tracing, Line-by-Line. Notes: You can attach only to .NET Core 3.x or .NET 5+ processes.	Available in: JetBrains Rider, standalone, console tool Supported profiling types: Timeline, Sampling, Tracing. Notes: Because of some limitations of .NET Core, there may be some issues with profiling projects that target .NET Core 3.0 or earlier. In some cases, the profiled application may hang or crash. Projects targeting .NET Core 3.1 can be profiled without any issues. Attaching to running .NET Core processes is possible: On Linux: only for .NET Core 3.0 or later. On macOS: only for .NET 5 or later.
Mono 5.10 and later	Available in: JetBrains Rider, Visual Studio, standalone, console tool Supported profiling types: Timeline.	Available in: JetBrains Rider, standalone, console tool Supported profiling types: Timeline. Notes: Only 64-bit processes can be profiled. Attaching to running Mono processes is not possible.
Mono Unity 2018.3 and later	Available in: JetBrains Rider, Visual Studio, standalone, console tool Supported profiling types: Timeline.	Available in: JetBrains Rider, standalone, console tool Supported profiling types: Timeline. Notes: Attaching to running Unity processes is not possible.

Get started

If you're new to performance profiling or dotTrace, start with Basics. Profiling Types.
For more information about performing main profiling scenarios, refer to How To.
If you need more information on the profiling process (running and configuring a profiling session, getting snapshots, and so on), start with Run Profiling.
The details on performance snapshots analysis are covered in Analyze Profiling Results in Performance Viewer (Deprecated).
Since version 6.0, dotTrace provides a completely new way of profiling applications — timeline profiling. This method lets you collect temporal data about your application. This way of profiling is extremely helpful when you need to analyze UI freezes, sync delays, excessive garbage collections, file I/O, and other interval events. For more information about analyzing timeline profiling snapshots, refer to Analyze Profiling Results.

Last modified: 07 May 2024