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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

"This framework is very easy to use and tweak for our business needs."
"The most valuable feature is that it's easy to use."
"The solution is easy to learn, understand and develop."
"ASP.NET works well with Windows applications and more generally, the Windows platform."
"ASP.NET is stable. I did not have to do any maintenance on it."
"The solution is very easy to maintain because UI management is simple and many libraries are available."
"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."
"I have found the entity framework to be a valuable feature. The authentication layer is amazing as well. ASP.NET has a vibrant community, and as a result, we haven't had the need to contact technical support."
"The feature I find most valuable is the fact that it's broad-spectrum, so it can be used for a wide variety of technologies."
"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."
"The valuable feature is that it provides a basic template for everything and built-in debugging tools. They definitely save me time."
"The stability is fine."
"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."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Visual Studio are the UI functionality where you can do software development. Everything is available there that you need. You can create the UI, and code, develop and compile it."
"The most valuable features are the extensions."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Visual Studio is the good intelligence and UI."
 

Cons

"Performance is an area that can always be improved."
"An area for improvement is the structure template."
"The solution is out of date and should not be used."
"In my opinion, this solution should improve their web toolkit."
"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."
"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."
"ASP.NET is a very slow tool, and it should be faster."
"I would like to see support for rapid application development. For example, if I am developing a new project, I am repeating many similar steps again and again and again. But the platform could do this easily, instead of me. It would save me time. This is something I would like to have in Microsoft Visual Studio, to have it take over repetitive tasks from me."
"Long installation or upgrade times are sometimes a problem."
"I would not recommend it for complex tasks."
"Since it is a heavy product, it is somewhat slow in building and executing the code in a localhost environment and it consumes a lot of resources."
"What I don't like about Microsoft Visual Studio is its user interface. It could be better. WebStorm is a better solution for me as it has a good user interface and is more user-friendly, though my friends like Microsoft Visual Studio. I worked with WebStorm for the web layer, and for the server layer, I worked with IBM Eclipse which is my favorite software. I also dealt with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS through Angular."
"The solution’s technical support could be improved."
"Microsoft should add more visualization for analytical studies or research."
"Microsoft Visual Studio can improve by bringing back designers. They used to have designers for architecture charts and diagrams. They were able to do things, such as database design. If they can bring them back, it would be great."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"ASP.NET is open-source and free of charge."
"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."
"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."
"The solution is free to use."
"ASP.NET is not an expensive solution."
"The pricing is somewhere in the middle. Not too expensive, but not the cheapest either."
"The price of ASP.NET is reasonable. I rate the pricing a five out of ten."
"The price is good."
"The introduction of the Community Version allows some people to use it free of charge."
"I'm using the platform's open-source version."
"The solution is expensive."
"The cost of using Microsoft Visual Studio monthly is approximately $300."
"The solution is a free tool."
"The price of Microsoft Visual Studio is reasonable but could be better."
"The price of Microsoft Visual Studio could be lowered. For a single developer, it is approximately $1,000."
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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.
881,707 professionals have used our research since 2012.