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ASP.NET VS ASP.NET Core

Compare ASP.NET VS ASP.NET Core and see what are their differences

ASP.NET logo ASP.NET

ASP.NET is a free web framework for building great Web sites and Web applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

ASP.NET Core logo ASP.NET Core

With ASP.
  • ASP.NET Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-29
  • ASP.NET Core Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-18

ASP.NET features and specs

  • Performance
    ASP.NET is known for its high performance and scalability. It compiles server-side code to DLL files, which is executed on the server side, thereby speeding up the application's response time.
  • Security
    ASP.NET provides built-in security features like form authentication and Windows authentication, as well as protection against common threats such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and request forgery.
  • Rich Toolbox
    Visual Studio, the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for ASP.NET, offers a rich toolbox with a plethora of controls, automatic deployment features, and other tools that significantly speed up development.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    ASP.NET Core is a cross-platform framework, which means you can run your web applications on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
  • Community and Support
    ASP.NET has a strong community and extensive documentation, making it easier to find solutions to problems and ensuring continuous improvement and support.

Possible disadvantages of ASP.NET

  • Learning Curve
    The framework can be complex for beginners, especially those without experience in C# or the .NET ecosystem.
  • Cost
    While ASP.NET Core is free and open-source, some advanced features and tools require a Visual Studio subscription, which can be expensive.
  • Hosting
    Although ASP.NET Core has improved in terms of cross-platform hosting, traditional ASP.NET applications are primarily optimized for Windows servers, limiting hosting options.
  • Resource Intensive
    ASP.NET applications can be more resource-intensive than applications built with some other frameworks, which can lead to higher infrastructure costs.
  • Complexity
    The framework offers a lot of features and functionalities, which can sometimes make it overly complex and harder to manage for smaller projects.

ASP.NET Core features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Support
    ASP.NET Core is a cross-platform framework, which means you can run your applications on Windows, macOS, and Linux. This flexibility allows developers to target a wider range of environments without being locked into a single operating system.
  • High Performance
    ASP.NET Core is known for its high performance, being built from the ground up to optimize speed and scalability. It uses a modular framework architecture and supports asynchronous programming, making it suitable for modern, high-traffic applications.
  • Unified MVC and Web API Frameworks
    In ASP.NET Core, MVC and Web API frameworks are unified into a single framework, simplifying the development model for building web and API-based applications.
  • Dependency Injection
    Built-in support for dependency injection simplifies the management of dependencies across the application, promoting cleaner architecture and testability.
  • Open Source and Community Support
    ASP.NET Core is open source and has a strong community around it. This means that developers have access to the source code and can contribute to its development. It also benefits from continuous improvements driven by community feedback.
  • Cloud Integration
    ASP.NET Core is designed with cloud deployment in mind, providing features and templates for streamlined integration with cloud platforms such as Azure.

Possible disadvantages of ASP.NET Core

  • Learning Curve
    While powerful, ASP.NET Core can have a steep learning curve for developers new to the framework or web development in general, due to its comprehensive set of features and tools.
  • Maturity of Third-Party Libraries
    Compared to the .NET Framework, some third-party libraries may not be fully mature or offer as many features, given that ASP.NET Core is a more recent platform.
  • Frequent Updates
    ASP.NET Core has a fast release cycle, which can be challenging for developers to keep up with. Frequent updates can mean regular changes to the framework that might require adjustments in application code.
  • Limited Windows-Specific Technology Support
    Some Windows-specific technologies and libraries might have limited or no support in ASP.NET Core, which can be a disadvantage for applications heavily reliant on those technologies.

Analysis of ASP.NET

Overall verdict

  • ASP.NET is a powerful and robust framework for building web applications. Its performance, security features, and strong support ecosystem make it a good choice for developers looking to build scalable and secure applications.

Why this product is good

  • Tooling
    ASP.NET is supported by Visual Studio, which provides an excellent development environment with features like IntelliSense, debugging, and profiling. There are also numerous extensions and tools available to enhance development workflow.
  • Security
    ASP.NET offers several built-in security features such as authentication, authorization, data protection, and HTTPS enforcement, making it a secure choice for web applications.
  • Performance
    ASP.NET is known for its high performance due to its ability to handle a large number of requests with minimal overhead. It is built on the .NET framework which provides robust libraries and optimizations.
  • Scalability
    ASP.NET applications can be efficiently scaled vertically and horizontally, which makes it well-suited for applications that expect to grow over time.
  • Community support
    Microsoft and a large community of developers actively support ASP.NET. You can find extensive documentation, tutorials, and forums for community assistance.

Recommended for

    {"enterprises" => "Ideal for enterprise-level applications requiring high security, performance, and scalability.", "developers_with_c#" => "Highly suitable for developers with a background in C#, offering seamless integration with existing .NET applications.", "large_web_applications" => "Perfect for developing large web applications, API services, and microservices.", "teams_using_microsoft_stack" => "Best for development teams already using the Microsoft technology stack, including Azure services."}

ASP.NET videos

Build Rating and Review System in ASP.NET MVC and Entity Framework

More videos:

  • Review - ASP.NET MVC - Review 0
  • Review - IMDeanyP Movie Review Site - ASP.NET / C# / SQL Server / MVC / Entity Framework

ASP.NET Core videos

Intro to ASP.NET Core Razor Pages - From Start to Published

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to ASP.NET and ASP.NET Core)
Developer Tools
83 83%
17% 17
Web Frameworks
82 82%
18% 18
Python Web Framework
81 81%
19% 19
Backend Framework
53 53%
47% 47

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare ASP.NET and ASP.NET Core

ASP.NET Reviews

The 20 Best Laravel Alternatives for Web Development
ASP.NET’s got that Microsoft muscle, a powerhouse of a framework for building dynamic web services and more. It lets you roll out robust websites with the smoothness that comes with deep pockets. Perfect for .NET software development teams.
Top 10 Phoenix Framework Alternatives
Moving over to the .NET platform, Asp.Net is an open-source web framework developed by Microsoft that allows developers to build dynamic web pages, apps, and services using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.
10 Ruby on Rails Alternatives For Web Development in 2022
Last but not least, a back-end web framework created by Microsoft for the development of dynamic web pages - ASP.NET. Built on top of C# it is one the fastest frameworks available on the market. ASP.NET is capable of handling 7.01 million requests per second while Django handles only 79,266 requests. The framework is mainly used for building web applications, APIs,...

ASP.NET Core Reviews

Top 5 Flutter Alternatives for Cross-Platform Development
As for performance, both ASP.NET and Flutter perform really well. For ASP.NET Core, it’s partly due to the lightweight and efficient Kestrel web server. Flutter’s speed is thanks to the Dart VM and Ahead-of-Time (AOT) compilation.
Source: www.miquido.com
Exploring 15 Powerful Flutter Alternatives
ASP.NET Core is an open-source and cross-platform framework for building modern cloud-enabled web apps on Windows, Mac, and Linux. One unique capability ASP.NET Core introduces relates to scalability. The framework provides native integration with cloud platforms like Azure that allow web apps to scale up or out to potentially even millions of users with no code...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, ASP.NET should be more popular than ASP.NET Core. It has been mentiond 22 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

ASP.NET mentions (22)

  • 30,656 Pages of Books About the .NET Ecosystem: C#, Blazor, ASP.NET, & T-SQL
    Most of the books teach C# and .NET, ASP.NET, Blazor, or T-SQL. I also found some .NET-specific coverage of wider topics: architecture and design, concurrency, automated tests, functional programming, and dependency injection. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Diversify Your Tech Stack: Uncovering Powerful Node js Alternatives
    Built by Microsoft, .NET is a high-performance application platform that uses C# for programming. .NET is cross-platform and comes with plenty of libraries and APIs covering collections, networking, and machine learning to build different types of applications. ASP.NET Core widens the .NET developer platform with libraries and tools geared towards web applications. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • C# Fundamentals
    Web Applications: ASP.NET, a powerful framework for building web applications, is primarily based on C#. Developers can create dynamic websites, web APIs, and services with ASP.NET. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • What’s New in Bold Reports 6.1 April 2024 Release
    The Bold Reporting Tools ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Web Forms will no longer be deployed in the embedded build. However, bug fixes are diligently transferred to our public repositories until Microsoft officially announces the end of support for these platforms. For new web application development or to stay up-to-date, Blazor or ASP.NET Core are recommended. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Is ASP.NET Core the next step in my career being an ASP.NET MVC developer? Or are there other technologies I should look at?
    Sorry for the possibly dumb questions. But then does .NET 5 have a "Model View Controller" workflow? I'm seeing ASP.NET still exists. But it's just "ASP.NET", no "MVC" or "Core" attached to the end. And they seem to recommend Blazor instead of C# which is something I only know the name of. Source: over 2 years ago
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ASP.NET Core mentions (5)

  • The Case For Go Backends
    However, usage of a C# framework like ASP .NET Core or a Java framework like OfficeFloor are more than capable in the right hands. The key is to understand the tradeoffs of each language and framework, and to choose the right tool for the job. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Exploring Xperience By Kentico: Introductions
    The administration UI is now built on React and ASP.NET Core which means it's fast 🚀! - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • Trying to learn ASP.NET core, but confused by the documentation
    Per https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/aspnet/what-is-aspnet-core, "ASP.NET Core is the open-source version of ASP.NET, that runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows. ASP.NET Core was first released in 2016 and is a re-design of earlier Windows-only versions of ASP.NET.". Source: almost 3 years ago
  • How can I convince my boss not to use Windows Server?
    But how about you both get your wishes: ASP.NET Core? Use a Linux server - with which you are familiar with, to host the live/production version. And the web application itself can be locally developed and tested in ASP.NET on a Windows server, which is what your boss wants? Source: over 3 years ago
  • 3 Different Hosting Models in Blazor
    Let’s remember that ASP.NET Core is cross-platform and can run practically anywhere. If you find yourself using C # for all your development, this is probably the best scenario for you to use anyway. With it, you can deploy your web application, which would also contain your Blazor Wasm assets in the same location. - Source: dev.to / about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing ASP.NET and ASP.NET Core, you can also consider the following products

Ruby on Rails - Ruby on Rails is an open source full-stack web application framework for the Ruby programming...

Django - The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines

CodeBehind Framework - CodeBehind is a new framework based on .NET Core version 7.0. The CodeBehind framework inherits all the features of .NET Core and gives it more simplicity and flexibility. CodeBehind framework is owned by Elanat.

Laravel - A PHP Framework For Web Artisans

Node.js - Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications

Flask - a microframework for Python based on Werkzeug, Jinja 2 and good intentions.