.NET Core vs ASP.NET Core: Difference and Comparison

Microsoft has created several cost-effective open-source back-end platforms for developing web, desktop, IoT, cloud, and mobile applications which operate on multiple operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and Mac.

Applications built on such platforms can run on both cloud as well as on-premises.

NET Core and ASP.NET Core are two such cross platforms (runs on more than one device ) that are updated versions of their existing parent technology and are friendly with Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems.

Key Takeaways

  1. .NET Core is a cross-platform, open-source framework for building modern applications, while ASP.NET Core is a web framework built on top of .NET Core.
  2. .NET Core supports multiple programming languages, whereas ASP.NET Core is specifically designed for web development.
  3. ASP.NET Core provides advanced features for web development, such as Razor Pages, MVC, and Web API, which are unavailable in the base .NET Core framework.

.NET Core vs ASP.NET Core

.NET Core and ASP.NET Core are both open-source frameworks developed by Microsoft. .NET Core is a general-purpose development platform, while ASP.NET Core is a framework for building web applications on top of .NET Core.

NET Core vs ASP.NET Core

In .NET Core, NET stands for network-enabled technologies.NET Core is a platform-independent framework that anyone may update and is completely free for developers to use.

It was released on November 12, 2012, and is an enhanced version of the.NET framework. There are several versions of.NET Core, including.NET Core 1.0, 2.0, 2.1, 2, 2, and 3.0,3.1.

Since this platform contains a collection of pre-coding, such frameworks are hassle-free for developers.

ASP.NET stands for active server pages in ASP.NET Core.

ASP.NET Core is a server-side, multi-platform framework that can be used to create multiple apps that can run on a multitude of platforms and technological devices.

Its parent framework is the ASP.NET web platform, which was released in 2002.

ASP was originally a programming language, but Microsoft eventually added the .NET framework to it to enhance its capabilities. ASP.NET Core 5.0 is the most recent version.

Comparison Table

Parameters of Comparison.NET CoreASP.NET Core
Parent Platform.NET framework is the parent platform of the current multi-platform framework, .NET Core.ASP.NET is the parent framework of the ASP.NET Core.
Full NameThe full name of the .NET Core is Network Enabled Technologies Core.The abbreviation ASP.NET Core stands for Active Server Pages Network Enabled Technologies Core.
Released yearThis open-source, crossed-source platform was initially released in the year 2012, after a decade after the release of ASP.NET Core.The released year of ASP.NET Core is 2002.
Latest Versions The latest version of .NET Core is .NET Core 3.1. The latest version of ASP.NET Core is .NET Core 5.0.
Compatible Operating SystemThe Operating Systems compatible with .NET Core are Windows, Linux, and Mac. The Operating Systems compatible with ASP.NET Core are Windows, Linux, and Mac.

What is .NET Core?

The Microsoft team developed.NET Core, a free, platform-agnostic, and modifiable platform that was ultimately released under the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) license.

Developers find this technology to be extremely user-friendly because all the precoding is done in the server-side technology, resulting in the quick execution of the program.

With the help of.NET Core, developers may create programs for any technological device, including mobile phones, desktop computers, iOS devices, and the cloud.

This platform was first published in 2012, and since then, various versions of.NET Core have been developed for application development. .NET Core versions.NET 7 and.

NET 8 has been anticipated for the following years. C#, F#, and C++ are the computer languages supported by.NET Core.

Command Line Interface, commonly known as CLI, is also compatible with.

NET Core. or role in developing dynamic applications such as Facebook and YouTube, which can be accessed on the web as well as the application version.

Through NuGet packages (software designed to aid programmers in reusing the codes), it is also possible to achieve modular designs, which is known as modular architecture.

This technology enables tasks to be completed in minimal time and that too efficiently.

What is ASP.NET Core?

Active Server Pages Network Enabled Technologies, also known as ASP.NET Core, is a server technology developed by the tech company Microsoft.

Microsoft employees initially built ASP as a coding language very similar to HTML.

Later, the .NET framework was added to enhance its capabilities.

Due to the addition of the .NET framework, common codes are already incorporated into the platform, making coding easier for programmers and building software speeds up.

Since ASP.NET Core applications may operate on many operating systems, it is referred to as a cross-source platform.

This framework was first launched in 2002, and several versions followed, the most recent of which being ASP.NET Core 5.0.

Hosting of the web application web server, for example, Apache, is also done on this platform and it has no separate executer to run programs coded by the programmer developer because of extension .NET.

Even it also allows the programmer to use a modern user interface (UI) like Bootstrap to write meaningful codes. It supports computer languages.

Main Differences Between .NET Core and ASP.NET Core.

  1. .NET Core is an open-source, operating system-independent platform that runs programs without a separate runtime. Developers can create dynamic applications for mobiles, desktops, IoS, and the cloud with ASP.NET Core, which is an open-source and cross-platform framework.
  2. .NET Core’s parent platform is the.NET framework, which only allows developers to write applications for a single operating system (Windows), whereas ASP.NET Core’s parent framework is ASP.NET, which only allows developers to create programs for Windows.
  3. The current version released of the .NET Core is the .NET Core 3.1, on the other hand, in the case of the ASP.NET Core, the latest version published is ASP.NET Core 5.0.
  4. The full name of .NET Core is Network Enabled Technologies, while The abbreviation ASP.NET Core stands for Active Server Pages Network Enabled Technologies Core.
  5. CoreCLR and CoreFX are the major components of .NET Core. CoreCLR serves as the runtime to execute the written program, and CoreFX assists in writing code for different operating systems. CLR is the main component of the ASP.NET Core. The role of CLR(Common Language Runtime) is to manage and execute the programs written by developers.
References
  1. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=iEQWDQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=.NET+Core+and+ASP.NET+Core&ots=tLVPfiE5fm&sig=6ckMKefve3vLuu9GukCZDIn5LyE
  2. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Qzm8DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=.NET+Core+and+ASP.NET+Core&ots=4nWibOD3y2&sig=Bi9WcbJlrSX_sLoRfEfYjyp3Hik

Last Updated : 11 June, 2023

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