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Coverlet

Coverlet is an MIT-licensed cross-platform code coverage framework for .NET, with line, branch and method coverage, available as a VSTest collector, MSBuild integration or global tool.

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Introduction

Coverlet is a cross-platform code coverage framework for .NET, supporting line, branch and method coverage. It is included by default in the dotnet new xunit template through the coverlet.collector package.

Coverlet offers three integrations. The VSTest collector (coverlet.collector) works with dotnet test --collect:"XPlat Code Coverage". The MSBuild integration (coverlet.msbuild) is enabled with /p:CollectCoverage=true and supports thresholds that fail the build. The .NET global tool (coverlet.console) can measure coverage for standalone integration tests. By default the collector writes JSON and Cobertura reports, and other formats include LCOV and OpenCover, which tools such as ReportGenerator, Codecov and Coveralls consume. The README notes that Coverlet supports only SDK-style projects. Version 10.1.0 was released on 27 September 2026.

The source code is at coverlet-coverage/coverlet on GitHub under the MIT licence, with about 3,200 stars; the most recent commit was on 10 November 2026.

Features

  1. Cross-platform: Windows, Linux and macOS.
  2. Three integrations: VSTest collector, MSBuild and global tool.
  3. Multiple formats: JSON, Cobertura, LCOV, OpenCover and more.
  4. Thresholds: Fail builds below coverage targets with MSBuild.

Pros

  1. Free to use: Open source under the MIT licence, so the core tool costs nothing to use.
  2. Actively maintained: The repository had commits as recent as 10 November 2026.
  3. Community: About 3,200 GitHub stars.

Cons

  1. SDK-style projects only: Older project formats are not supported.
  2. Separate reporting tool: HTML reports usually need ReportGenerator.
# Collector (included in many test templates)
dotnet test --collect:"XPlat Code Coverage"

# MSBuild integration with a threshold
dotnet add package coverlet.msbuild
dotnet test /p:CollectCoverage=true /p:CoverletOutputFormat=cobertura /p:Threshold=80

# HTML report with ReportGenerator
dotnet tool install -g dotnet-reportgenerator-globaltool
reportgenerator -reports:**/coverage.cobertura.xml -targetdir:coverage-report

Resources:

Pricing

Coverlet is free and open source under the MIT licence.

  1. .NET teams on any OS wanting free coverage in CI.
  2. Projects uploading coverage to Codecov or Coveralls.

Conclusion

Coverlet is the standard free coverage tool for modern .NET, flexible enough for local runs and CI gates.

Alternatives

Other tools on CheckOps that cover similar ground. Open a page, or compare one with Coverlet side by side.