Script Inspector 3 Review

ASSET LINK

Price $39 usd

Rating Overview

• Quality: Pass
• Modularity/Workability: Pass
• Support/Serviceability: Pass
• Value: Pass

Good

• Blazing fast
• Small footprint
• Full-featured
• Directly integrated into Unity
• Custom console
• Full source!

Bad

• Per-seat license

The following review is for the Unity Asset Script Inspector 3 (referred to SI after this point)

Positives

The most obvious positive is how fast this asset it. The speed at which it opens scripts, compiles assemblies, etc... is ridiculous. Absolutely. Positively. Ridiculous! Watch the video review, linked at the top, to see just how fast it works. I can open, edit and recompile my assemblies with SI in the amount of time it takes something like Visual Studios just to open a script. The amount of time saved from just those sort of interactions is invaluable, and worth the price of admission alone. But, there is so much more...

Its probably worth noting before we go on that SI is a full-blown code editor. I have personally replaced Visual Studios with SI in both my personal Unity workflow, as well as for my professional Unity work. Its that powerful. So, with that in mind, its also worth pointing out how small of a footprint this asset has. Size-wise, for me, its 5.76mb on disk. Your results may vary due to meta files, storage type and OS, but, in general, its going to be significantly smaller than something like Visual Studios.

It also has direct integration into the Unity Editor, so there is no switching back and fourth when you open scripts or compile things. Because its directly integrated, it also uses a holistic approach to things like error reporting, verses the sort of disjointed approach of Visual Studios being a separate application that needs to be open and running... which also significantly lowers your required system resources.

SI also provides you with a custom console that provides significantly more data then the standard console, built into the Unity Editor.

You also get Full source code with your license if you really want to mess with it at all... but you don't have to since SI "just works" straight out of the box. No dependencies, no mess, no bullshit. It just work.

Negatives

The only real negative I would point out about SI is that it is a per-seat license. Now, I struggled here with this one, if I am being honest. Normally, I have personal issues with how many asset store developers borderline abuse the per-seat (vs single entity) license model on the asset store. I usually gravitate towards using and recommending single entity license assets for a number of reasons that I wont get into in this review (maybe I'll make an opinion post about it at some point), HOWEVER, this is one of the rarer cases in which I believe the per-seat license IS in fact justified.
First of all, the license is only $39 / per seat and so far as I can tell, that entitles you to lifetime upgrades for each seat (and the developer is actively working on improvements, as well as has an active role in support, forums, etc..).
That price alone, even with the per seat license, is well worth the price of admission, if for nothing else, just the sheer amount of time it saves you.
But, there is another, more serious and nefarious consideration here.... Visual Studios, which is the defacto code editor for Unity is not free, as they would have you believe on the surface, its freeimum. It has all sorts of stipulations for what you can and cannot do and how much you have to pay if you to do the things you cant do. Then there are additional prohibitions and restrictions depending other factors like which version of VS you are using, or how much money you actually make from the use of VS.
... This is the nightmare of modern software licensing, and especially SaaS.
If you are running a business, then you probably have better things to do with your time then navigate the web of convolution that is the Visual Studio legal platform. If you are a solo, indie, etc... developer then you probably don't want to get sued for unintentional misuse of Visual Studios. This is why, in my opinion, a flat fee of $39/user is, BY FAR, worth the value on the cost/benefit scale.

Final Thoughts on Script Inspector 3

From its blazing fast and intuitive interface and highly functional feature set, at $39/user Script Inspector 3 is, in my opinion, well worth the price of admission.