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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 January 2026, in the .NET Development Services category, the mindshare of ASP.NET is 11.4%, up from 11.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Visual Studio is 11.8%, down from 19.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
.NET Development Services Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Visual Studio11.8%
ASP.NET11.4%
Other76.8%
.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

"We find the solution to be scalable."
"It is easy to install ASP.NET on your laptop."
"The solution is very easy to maintain because UI management is simple and many libraries are available."
"The most valuable features are ease of use, scalability, and flexibility."
"ASP.NET works well with Windows applications and more generally, the Windows platform."
"The most valuable feature of ASP.NET is its visual side, which makes building Windows forms applications visually efficient."
"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."
"The solution's framework supports storing all client-side and server-side code in one place."
"I like the IDE or the integrated development environment. It's the best IDE."
"I like the product's connection with Azure analytics services and the ability to build the model on the cloud."
"Visual Studio makes it easier to compile the code and shows me the errors upfront when coding. For example, it will tell me when a reference is incorrect or if there's a mistake within the function calls. I like how it highlights with a red underline so that I know there's an error at that point."
"We use TFS for our scrums, which links our tasks to actual code changes."
"We see savings in terms of time and money; if I take the manual testing against automatic testing, we see about an 80% saving."
"The installation of the solution is easy."
"The initial setup was very easy."
"It's pretty prevalent."
 

Cons

"The solution is out of date and should not be used."
"An area for improvement is the structure template."
"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 caching could improve in ASP.NET. I don't often run into limitations with ASP.NET. More often, it's the other tools we use that slow us down."
"You are required to have knowledge of C#."
"In addition to the visual aspect, there is a need for ASP.NET to provide a robust visual front end like there was in the past."
"I am sure there is something that has room for improvement but nothing specific comes to mind."
"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."
"They could add new modules to the platform for enhanced functioning."
"Despite its advantages, challenges in diverse cloud environments may prompt the uninstallation of the application or entire development environment for resolution."
"Could be improved with the ability to personalize the interface and development style and to edit extension requirements."
"It is simple to use for most developers and nearly impossible to use for non-developers."
"It would be nice if Visual Studio's extensions and updates could self-correct, if they are not working or disabled, and also inform the user."
"The UI could be better, and development could be easier on Microsoft Visual Studio if there were more features like drag and drop and more frameworks, etc."
"We'd like the solution to be more secure."
"Visual Studio Team System needs to improve documentation."
 

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."
"This is a free solution. However, we have some server licensing costs which are not directly a cost of using the solution."
"ASP.NET is an open-source solution."
"The solution is comparatively cheaper, and you don't have to pay anything for a developer license."
"The price of ASP.NET is reasonable. I rate the pricing a five out of ten."
"The solution requires a licensing fee but is worth the investment."
"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."
"The solution is free to use."
"We have an enterprise-level license. The cost is expensive for small to medium-sized organizations."
"I use the open-source version of Microsoft Visual Studio."
"The license is taken care of by my company and the price could be less expensive."
"We are using the solution's free version."
"I'm using the platform's open-source version."
"We purchased an expensive enterprise version of Microsoft Visual Studio."
"Our purchasing department pays a fair price for it."
"The solution is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Performing Arts
20%
Real Estate/Law Firm
14%
Logistics Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Performing Arts
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

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?
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 ...
What is your primary use case for ASP.NET?
My current use case for ASP.NET mainly involves APIs and websites.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Visual Studio?
I wish Microsoft Visual Studio was available on the Mac for improvement. I just wish it worked on the Mac.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Visual Studio?
My main use case for Microsoft Visual Studio is writing file processing code and backend APIs. A specific example of the kind of file processing or API work I do with Microsoft Visual Studio is pro...
 

Comparisons

No data available
No data available
 

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: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.