ASP.NET Core
NET — for building high-performance web apps, APIs, and real-time services that run on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Definition
ASP.NET Core is Microsoft's open-source, cross-platform web framework — a ground-up reimagining of ASP.NET — for building high-performance web apps, APIs, and real-time services that run on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Overview
Released in 2016, ASP.NET Core runs on the modern, cross-platform .NET runtime rather than the Windows-only .NET Framework. It is built around a lightweight, modular request pipeline and the high-performance Kestrel web server, which is commonly deployed behind reverse proxies like Nginx in production. The framework supports MVC, Razor Pages, minimal APIs, and Blazor for building interactive web UIs in C# instead of JavaScript, backed by Entity Framework Core for data access. It is frequently containerized with Docker and deployed to Kubernetes or Azure App Service. ASP.NET Core is the direct successor to the original ASP.NET, unifying web, API, and real-time development (via SignalR) in a single cross-platform framework.
Key Features
- Cross-platform runtime supporting Windows, Linux, and macOS
- High-performance Kestrel web server built for cloud-native deployment
- Minimal APIs for building lightweight HTTP services with little boilerplate
- Built-in dependency injection throughout the framework
- Blazor for building interactive web UIs in C# instead of JavaScript
- First-class support for containers, Kubernetes, and cloud hosting
Use Cases
Frequently Asked Questions
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