ASP.NET Web API vs Core
In this tutorial, You will learn the difference between ASP.NET Web API and Core. ASP.NET Web API is a component or part of the.NET Framework that is designed mainly for Windows-based applications. whereas ASP.NET Core is a cross-platform framework which provides improved performance and scalability for modern web application and API development. If you are starting to build a new project, particularly one that requires cross-platform compatibility, ASP.NET Core is the best option for it.
ASP.NET Web API
ASP.NET Web API is a part of the ASP.NET framework and it is mostly designed for building lightweight, scalable, and data-oriented services that follow the rules of Representational State Transfer (REST) architecture. It is used for building HTTP services that can be consumed by a variety of clients such as browsers and mobile devices.
ASP.NET Core
According to Microsoft, It is an open-source version of ASP.NET that operates on Windows, Linux, macOS, and Docker etc. It is a new version of the ASP.NET Web Framework that is primarily intended to run on the.NET Core Platform. ASP.NET Core is a free, open source, high performance, lightweight, and cross plateform Framework for developing Web Applications on the Microsoft.NET (.NET Core) Platform. It can be run in both cloud and on-premises. ASP.NET Core prioritises performance. It is faster than other well-known web frameworks. ASP.NET Core was designed to be modular with minimal overhead, and other more advanced functionality can be added as NuGet Packages as needed. This results in high performance that requires minimal memory and deployment size while also being simple to manage.
Microsoft and the.NET community maintain.NET (.NET Core), which is open source and cross-platform. The class libraries, runtime, compilers, languages, ASP.NET Core web framework, Windows desktop frameworks, Entity Framework Core data access library, and other components of.NET are all open source.
Difference Between ASP.NET Web API and ASP.NET Core
| S.No. | ASP.NET Web API | ASP.NET Core |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | It is a part of the ASP.NET framework and is built on top of the entire .NET Framework for primarily targets Windows-based system and runs on the Common Language Runtime (CLR). | It is a platform-independent framework. It runs on Windows, Linux, and MacOS which makes it cross-platform. It is not fully dependent on the.NET Framework. It is based on.NET Core, a modular and lightweight version of the.NET Runtime. |
| 2 | It is the part of the full .NET Framework, ASP.NET Web API inherits the full framework's size and is relatively larger in terms of the deployment package. | It is designed to create modular and lightweight application. It allows you to include only the necessary dependencies in smaller deployment packages and better performance. |
| 3 | Dependency injection available in ASP.NET Web API but nobuilt-in support by default. You can use third-party libraries or implement your own custom dependency injection solution in your application. | Dependency injection functionality is a built-in by default in ASP.NET Core which maks it easy to manage and inject dependencies in your application. |
| 4 | ASP.NET Web API uses OWIN (Open Web Interface for .NET) for middleware communication. OWIN is specific or unique to the .NET Framework and is not cross-platform. | ASP.NET Core uses its custom middleware system that is designed for cross-platform compatibility. It allowing developers to create their own middleware components and configure them to suit their needs and handling HTTP requests and responses. |
| 5 | ASP.NET Web API, being part of the full .NET Framework, may almost certainly have more overhead and latency compared to ASP.NET Core. | The modular and lightweight design of ASP.NET Core allows for improved scalability and performance optimisation. It responds more quickly and performs better in instances with heavy demand. |
| 6 | It usually focus on Windows-based platforms and does not work or run on non-Windows platforms such as Linux and macOS. |
It is designed for cross platform. It can run on different operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and MacOS. This enables programmers to create apps that work on multiple operating systems. |
| 7 | It is suitable for developers who want to take advantage of the full .NET Framework and its extensive ecosystem of libraries and tools. | When a Programmer need to develop an application which support cross-platform compatibility as well as a lightweight and flexible framework. ASP.NET Core is the most preferred choice for modern web application development. |
| 8 | Web API supports self-hosting with any ASP.NET application. | You can host ASP.NET web application on various platforms with any web server such as IIS or Apache. It is not fully dependent on IIS as a standard .NET framework application depends. |
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