As we look ahead to the DevExpress v25.1 release anticipated early June, there is a lot to get excited about across our product line-up. From UI enhancements and performance boosts to serious AI integration and accessibility upgrades, the focus this cycle is clear: smarter, faster, and more inclusive development.
WinForms
WinForms gets a major boost in v25.1 with features that elevate productivity and polish. The new RoundedSkinPanel component as well as existing Ribbon control adjustments will make it easier for developers to replicate modern Microsoft Fluent 2 UI like Outlook or Teams. Accessibility improvements have been made across the board, especially in Report Viewers and Dashboards, ensuring better screen reader and keyboard navigation support.
The Template Kit for .NET 8+ gets new Project Templates for WinForms and WPF to build secure frontends with a built–in login form and a Middle-Tier Security server for the backend. The new Application Builder project template helps you integrate multiple views or forms (aka Item Templates) in a single go, making app scaffolding much quicker.
On the AI front, semantic search lands in the Data Grid, allowing users to query data using natural language. Reporting tools are now more intelligent with automatic localization, natural language to SQL conversion, and AI-powered error suggestions through the Report Design Analyzer. The PDF Viewer also joins the AI party with summarization and translation features to boost document usability.
For a detailed look at what's new for WinForms check out the team blog, if you want to check out some of the features the EAP is now available, details can be found here.
WPF
With the deprecation of BinaryFormatter in .NET 9, we've updated our data processing logic to ensure smooth drag-and-drop clipboard operations. We have designed AI-powered Semantic Search and Smart Paste features to boost user productivity. To enhance AI agent integration, we're also introducing a new Chat Control built with Blazor Hybrid.
We’re introducing a new Project Upgrader utility tailored for WPF applications. This tool helps modernize legacy projects with fewer headaches, automating common update tasks and ensuring smoother migrations to newer frameworks. For those targeting cross-platform environments, we've migrated a set of demos to Avalonia XPF a framework that allows existing WPF apps to run on macOS and Linux.
To help build apps even faster, we've enhanced our DevExpress Template Kit. You can now chose from 30+ pre-designed views, each with MVVM and dependency injection support. There is also a new template with built-in login form and a middle-tier security server to simplify client-server app development.
Accessibility remains a key focus, with updates to screen reader support and keyboard navigation, making apps more inclusive.
Full details can be found on the WPF team blog and EAP to some of these features is now available, see this blog post for details.
VCL
VCL is taking a big step toward modernization with a new CTP for hybrid reporting that seamlessly integrates the DevExpress JavaScript Report Designer and Viewer. This bridges native VCL apps with modern web-based design capabilities via WebView and ASP.NET Core. All the required .NET and JS dependencies are embedded into a single self-contained EXE file transparently/magically and developers can still use Delphi/C++ for many reporting customizations - this maintains one of the key advantages of VCL as a platform.
Performance improvements include better rendering for skinned forms and SVGs, plus easier application-wide skinning for the Bar Manager, Layout Control, Status and Navigation Bars. Accessibility updates target commonly used controls like the Layout Control and Data Grid. AI-powered enhancements are being researched for future releases—think smart paste, summarization, and translation. We're also introducing improved state management in data-aware controls, so developers can persist things like node focus, selection, and scroll positions more easily.
These exciting features and more in detail at the VCL Team Blog
Blazor
Blazor continues to evolve rapidly. We’re retiring legacy components like DxDataGrid and introducing a new .NET Upgrade Assistant plugin to help transition projects smoothly, automatically identifying and resolving breaking changes. The Fluent theme becomes fully production-ready, complete with light/dark modes, custom accents, and scalable icons. We’re reducing payload size by modularizing CSS and exploring the removal of Bootstrap to improve load performance.
Our AI Chat component sees major improvements: file attachments and prompt suggestions. PDF export support arrives for Grid and TreeList, along with new UI elements like the TreeList search box and 'Select All' in List Box. Plus, our new App Showcase demo illustrates how to build slick, modern business apps using Blazor and DevExpress controls featuring authentication for demonstration purposes, reusable code blocks and uses the new Fluent theme with light and dark modes.
Full details on the Blazor Team Blog.
DevExtreme
In our upcoming v25.1 release, we will introduce two new UI components: CardView and Stepper. CardView offers a visually engaging way to present business data using card layouts, complete with built-in features such as sorting, filtering, editing, and responsive design. Stepper is ideal for multi-step processes like onboarding flows or form wizards, and includes full customization options for each step.
We are expanding our AI capabilities with the addition of AI-assisted text editing in the DevExtreme HTML Editor. Users will be able to proofread, summarize, and modify content using smart commands directly within the editor's toolbar. This enhancement helps streamline content creation and delivers a more intelligent user experience.
Significant enhancements are coming to our Chat UI component. Users will be able to edit and delete messages post-submission, and a simplified approach to image rendering within messages will improve integration with AI image-generation services. These updates will enable richer, more dynamic chat experiences.
The DevExtreme Scheduler will feature a fully customizable integrated toolbar, allowing developers to combine built-in elements, DevExtreme components, and custom templates for maximum flexibility. Meanwhile, the DevExtreme Map component will support custom route modes tailored to various transport types, such as 'truck' or 'bicycle', depending on the map provider.
DevExtreme CLI will support the creation of React apps using Vite or Next.js, aligning with current industry standards. For Angular, CLI-generated apps will transition to standalone components.
We continue to enhance accessibility in core components like the DataGrid and Scheduler. These updates reflect our ongoing commitment to delivering a modern, inclusive, and consistently improving development experience.
Read the Team Blog for full details.
Document Processing Libraries
This release brings a major milestone: the introduction of a new PowerPoint API. Developers can now generate and manipulate presentation files alongside our existing Word, PDF, and Excel support. The API supports creating slides, inserting images and shapes enabling automated generation of polished, professional presentations.
Extending the PDF Document API will see the introduction of a compression engine to optimize size of your output file by compressing streams, form elements, fonts and graphics as well as a new Redaction API allowing you to permanently remove sensitive details in your document with overlays featuring custom text or graphics.
OLE objects support is coming to the Spreadsheet Document API allowing import, viewing and management of linked objects via code.
Not to be forgotten, the Word Processing Document API will see support for proper line breaks between characters in Chinese, Japanese and Korean texts, this provides enhanced document rendering and readability. Improvements to the rendering and PDF export for documents containing mixed Right-to-Left (RTL) and Left-to-Right text blocks. When exporting to PDF, content controls (Plain text boxes, check boxes and popups) are generated as their corresponding PDF AcroForm fields. We’re also introducing new API’s into the Document Comparison API allowing Word documents to be compared identifying changes with the ability to generate revision-based outputs highlighting differences.
Together, these updates significantly expand the range and quality of document-based functionality developers can deliver in their apps.
More details available on the Teams Blog.
XAF & Web API
XAF Blazor enhanced accessibility with keyboard shortcut support for menu commands. The DxGridListEditor continues to get updates too: banded layout, new contextual menus, better handling of splitter position, virtual scrolling, tooltips, etc. Both XAF Blazor and WinForms welcome new built-in TagBox and Checked ComboBox Property Editors, Enumeration Property Editor filtering, and extended multi-tenancy support (to handle shared data scenarios more gracefully). Our revamped Outlook-Inspired Demo will also include the new Chart Property Editor and integrations for more Blazor controls.
For EF Core, we’re adding optimistic concurrency, a new Clone Object Module, and automated EF migrations to simplify database management. For both EF Core and XPO ORM, the Template Kit now automatically includes all required NuGet packages and connection plumbing for PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, SQL Azure, etc. A project template for hybrid desktop apps via Electron.NET is also on the horizon, offering the same UX across Windows, macOS, and Linux (powered by XAF Blazor and Middle-Tier Security Server).
For non-XAF application scenarios, our backend Web API Service gets some long-requested features: support for OData Deep Insert/Update, and batch operations. The Middle-Tier Security server is now also easier to use for external EF Core-based consumers - all making our framework much more robust for integration-heavy applications.
No amount of summarizing could do justice to the updates, it's better you read the Team Blog here.
Reporting & BI Dashboard
DevExpress Reports introduces line spacing control and time zone conversion, letting you display UTC data in the viewer's local context. MongoDB makes its way into the Data Source Wizard, and layout design becomes easier with new "Snap to Grid" behavior.
AI localization and intelligent error suggestions enhance productivity, while accessibility improvements roll out across viewers for all platforms. We’re also working on expanding IDE support with better performance in Visual Studio and exploring Rider integration.
On the BI Dashboard side, DateOnly and TimeOnly support improves filtering and parameter control. Dashboards can now prompt for parameters before loading, and accessibility gets a boost on both WinForms and Web platforms.
The team have detailed the roadmap here and EAP access is available for licensed users, for more information see this blog post.
Whether you’re working in desktop, web, or hybrid environments, DevExpress v25.1 brings powerful tools and thoughtful improvements to help you build more capable, intelligent, and accessible apps faster than ever.
Important Note on the EAP.
Early Access and CTP builds are provided solely for early testing purposes and are not ready for production use. This build can be installed side by side with other major versions of DevExpress products. Please backup your project and other important data before installing Early Access and CTP builds. This EAP may not include all features/products we expect to ship in our v25.1 release cycle. As its name implies, the EAP offers an early preview of what we expect to ship in two months.