Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Play Framework VS ASP.NET Core

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

Play Framework logo Play Framework

An open source web framework which follows the model-view-controller architecture. It is light-weight, web-friendly, and stateless. It provides minimal overhead for highly-scalable applications.

ASP.NET Core logo ASP.NET Core

With ASP.
  • Play Framework Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-06-23
  • ASP.NET Core Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-18

Play Framework features and specs

  • Scalability
    The Play Framework is built with scalability in mind, making it easier to develop applications that can handle a large number of simultaneous users and requests.
  • Reactive Programming
    Play is based on a reactive programming model, which allows it to handle asynchronous tasks efficiently. This results in better performance and resource utilization.
  • Hot Reloading
    Play supports hot reloading, enabling developers to see changes in real-time without needing to restart the server. This feature boosts productivity by speeding up the development cycle.
  • Java and Scala Support
    The framework supports both Java and Scala, accommodating a wide range of developers and allowing teams to choose their preferred language.
  • Built-in Testing
    Play has built-in support for writing unit and functional tests, offering a comprehensive test framework to ensure code quality and reliability.
  • RESTful by Default
    Play makes it straightforward to build RESTful web services, simplifying the construction of APIs and ensuring that they adhere to REST principles.
  • Extensive Documentation
    The Play Framework boasts extensive and detailed documentation, making it easier for developers to get started and find solutions to common problems.

Possible disadvantages of Play Framework

  • Steep Learning Curve
    New developers might find Play’s reactive model and functional programming concepts challenging, especially if they are primarily experienced with traditional web frameworks.
  • Memory Usage
    Play applications can be memory-intensive, which might lead to higher hosting costs compared to lighter frameworks, especially for smaller applications.
  • Complex Configuration
    Setting up and configuring a Play application can be complex and time-consuming, particularly for beginners or small teams without extensive experience.
  • Limited Community Support
    Although Play has a dedicated user base, its community is smaller compared to more popular web frameworks like Spring or Django, potentially making it difficult to find solutions and community-driven resources.
  • Verbose Code
    Play applications may require a significant amount of boilerplate code, particularly when integrating with other services or libraries, leading to potentially verbose and less maintainable codebases.

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.

Play Framework videos

The Play Framework at LinkedIn: Productivity and Performance at Scale

ASP.NET Core videos

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Play Framework and ASP.NET Core)
Web Frameworks
45 45%
55% 55
Developer Tools
39 39%
61% 61
Development
100 100%
0% 0
Python Web Framework
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

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

Play Framework Reviews

The 20 Best Laravel Alternatives for Web Development
Play Framework brings Scala and Java into harmony, offering a backstage pass to simplistic, asynchronous web development. No song and dance, just straightforward high-octane performance.
17 Popular Java Frameworks for 2023: Pros, cons, and more
The Play Framework makes it possible to build lightweight and web-friendly Java and Scala applications for desktop and mobile. Play is a hugely popular framework, used by brands such as LinkedIn, Samsung, Walmart, The Guardian, Verizon, and many others.
Source: raygun.com
10 Best Java Frameworks You Should Know
Play is written using Scala Programming Language. It offers web and mobile application development. It follows MVC architecture. Play is compiled to Java-Bytecode, and this makes Play one of the most powerful frameworks.

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 Core should be more popular than Play Framework. It has been mentiond 5 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.

Play Framework mentions (1)

  • Examples of CompletableFuture-based APIs / state of async in Java?
    I can see the Play framework really leans into async, and only tolerates blocking controllers. What else is out there? Source: over 1 year ago

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 / about 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 / over 2 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: over 2 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 Play Framework and ASP.NET Core, you can also consider the following products

Django - The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines

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

Adonis JS - AdonisJs is a Node.js web framework with breath of fresh air and drizzle of elegant syntax on top of it

Laravel - A PHP Framework For Web Artisans

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.

ExpressJS - Sinatra inspired web development framework for node.js -- insanely fast, flexible, and simple