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ASP.NET vs Microsoft Visual Studio comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

ASP.NET
Ranking in .NET Development Services
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Visual Studio
Ranking in .NET Development Services
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
101
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the .NET Development Services category, the mindshare of ASP.NET is 13.0%, up from 11.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Visual Studio is 13.0%, down from 18.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
.NET Development Services Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Visual Studio13.0%
ASP.NET13.0%
Other74.0%
.NET Development Services
 

Featured Reviews

SasidharParupudi - PeerSpot reviewer
Principle Consultant at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Building reliable web APIs and sites has become faster and development stays well supported
I think Microsoft can make ASP.NET better by catching up with other frameworks by adopting features that are very popular in those frameworks, such as minimal APIs and other innovations. They have introduced Blazor, which is their newer front-end development software framework, but unfortunately, Blazor is not well adopted in the market. However, I feel that they will catch up in the future as Blazor has a lot of potential. In my opinion, there is not anything extra needed immediately for ASP.NET; the framework is self-sufficient and very mature at this stage. The problem lies with wider adoption, as some people are anti-Microsoft and prefer open-source alternatives such as React. Microsoft could potentially do a better job at marketing these solutions, but other than that, the tool has the potential to be used in any enterprise-level applications. I would say the setup process for ASP.NET is relatively simple, but with the latest generation of user management or integration with OpenID, the documentation is not comprehensive in terms of what you can do with the latest libraries. They support many things and have decoupled themselves from their own identity servers, but still need to improve documentation considerably.
Eitan Gold - PeerSpot reviewer
SQA Manager at Elmo Motion Control Ltd.
Test code efficiency improves with integrated debugger and automation
The test explorer is really important for us as it aids in testing, along with the regular debugger. Even though I forgot the term for it at the moment, there is an overall debugger tool within the IDE that is very effective. This comprehensive debugger tool does the job efficiently, making our work easier.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable features are ease of use, scalability, and flexibility."
"The most valuable feature of ASP.NET is the support of multiple platforms with ASP.NET Core. Additionally, Azure integrates well with ASP.NET and Visual Studio."
"It's a pretty stable solution."
"While using ASP.net, we can create interactive websites."
"The solution is useful for seeing what old technology was before the new technology we use today, such as .NET."
"The developer support for ASP.NET is a big positive. It's actually very good, and since there are so many people who use ASP.NET, it's easy to get responses to questions about ASP.NET in the broader community."
"The most valuable feature of ASP.NET is its visual side, which makes building Windows forms applications visually efficient."
"ASP.NET works well with Windows applications and more generally, the Windows platform."
"We can write programming code, write our test cases and automate tests in Visual Studio.NET."
"Microsoft Visual Studio is integrated with all tools and offers all necessary extensions, making it very convenient."
"It's a universal solution. I like that I can easily find software developers for it. I can easily find staff on Microsoft forums. Also, we have other components that are running on top of Visual Studio. I like that it is open to other platforms. Finally, there are many many resources for Microsoft Visual Studio and I can easily find support. There is a large knowledge base for it as well."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Visual Studio are debugging and IntelliSense."
"I like it that I don't need any special software to run this program."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Visual Studio are the way we are able to design code, deploy, and test our application. It is easy to move an artifact from the start to the deployment stage. It has well-defined processes that you can integrate with any team. Additionally, the solution is always improving."
"The main benefits Microsoft Visual Studio provides include streamlining processes, and it's fairly intuitive, where most of what I need to do can be accessed from the dropdown menus."
"We see savings in terms of time and money; if I take the manual testing against automatic testing, we see about an 80% saving."
 

Cons

"The con is that every year they are launching a new technology, and for a company like us, we get confused which version should be used."
"ASP.NET is not the best solution for all companies looking to implement a solution like it."
"There should be consistent customization related to security, features, and developers, making the solution more understandable and adaptable."
"In the future, I would like to see more AI and machine learning technologies made available in libraries."
"The technology to integrate with cloud information could be improved."
"There used to be IAF, which you could spin on a Windows machine. However, that sort of setup does not exist for Linux machines. Because customers still prefer a Windows underlying infrastructure, it can get expensive."
"The solution needs to support its framework on all devices used for mobile application development."
"It would be beneficial if Microsoft provided more support for certain technologies, such as Blazor, in the form of basic components. As it stands, some reliance on third-party tools may be necessary. Having more support from Microsoft for these technologies would make it easier for users to build and maintain applications. For example, the grids, date pickers, and dropdown lists would be components to add."
"Microsoft Visual Studio needs to improve integration."
"There are some features that I have yet to explore and it would be helpful to have more information about what is available and how it works."
"Despite its advantages, challenges in diverse cloud environments may prompt the uninstallation of the application or entire development environment for resolution."
"The migration could improve in Microsoft Visual Studio. When I upgraded from 2017 and up to 2022 it was not smooth. There was a lot of manual hand-picking. Microsoft should put a higher budget for the database developers' section in Visual Studio."
"I'd like the product to become more secure. You could potentially, for example, download an extension that contains malware."
"Microsoft Visual Studio could improve by making it faster. Every time they add a new feature or plugin it slows it down. They should allow the user to turn off features they do not use."
"The pricing for licenses could be reduced to make this solution more competitive."
"I would like to see more tools in the next release."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I think ASP.NET, in deployment, is something that's quite costly when you're on a cloud provider such as Azure, and you have to pay the server cost. On average, it can cost approximately $1,000 per month to host a good site with a few databases."
"The solution is open source and free."
"ASP.NET is not an expensive solution."
"The price of ASP.NET is reasonable. I rate the pricing a five out of ten."
"This is a free solution. However, we have some server licensing costs which are not directly a cost of using the solution."
"The pricing is a bit high and I believe that it can be brought down."
"On a scale from one to ten, with one being cost efficient and 10 being the most expensive, I would rate ASP.NET's pricing at six. There used to be IAF, which you could spin on a Windows machine. However, that sort of setup does not exist for Linux machines. Because customers still prefer a Windows underlying infrastructure, it can get expensive."
"ASP.NET is open-source and free of charge."
"The solution is expensive."
"Its price could be better."
"Microsoft Visual Studio is free. It's freeware, so you don't have to pay for its license."
"I'm using the platform's open-source version."
"You have to be a subscriber with a Visual Studio subscription to use the solution and the organization has to purchase a license that's linked to the account."
"The cost of using Microsoft Visual Studio monthly is approximately $300."
"I use the open-source version of Microsoft Visual Studio."
"We purchased an expensive enterprise version of Microsoft Visual Studio."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Performing Arts
17%
Marketing Services Firm
15%
Real Estate/Law Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Marketing Services Firm
19%
Performing Arts
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise13
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business36
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise50
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ASP.NET?
Our solution is deployed in a hybrid setup; we have some on-site on a private cloud and some on Azure. Most of our costing comes from database licensing, as we use SQL Server, which has very costly...
What needs improvement with ASP.NET?
With the Aspire project, the community is working well on third-party tools for integration, but as a framework, it is solid for almost all normal use cases. For some advanced use cases, I do not s...
What is your primary use case for ASP.NET?
I am mainly developing backend solutions, microservices, and monolithic web backends with ASP.NET.I tried Angular and Blazor; I worked with Angular a long time ago, but I worked with a small projec...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Visual Studio?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Microsoft Visual Studio is that the pricing is free, which is perfect.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Visual Studio?
I think Microsoft Visual Studio is a very good tool and I do not have many improvements to suggest. The only thing I can think of is that I quite regularly get notifications that interrupt my workf...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Visual Studio?
My main use case for Microsoft Visual Studio is writing code, specifically infrastructure as code to build resources in cloud platforms such as AWS EC2 instances, Google IAM resources, and networks...
 

Also Known As

No data available
MS Visual Studio
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Kienzle Automotive GmbH, Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Vengo Labs, Oneview Healthcare, BookedOut, Ministry of Rural Development, Grupo WRR
Knab, Hamburg Port Authority, Kecioren Municipality, National Instruments, Hamburg Port Authority, Government of Odisha, Kongsberg Maritime AS
Find out what your peers are saying about ASP.NET vs. Microsoft Visual Studio and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.