Understanding the Good and the Bad of .NET Development Framework

.NET development framework has gained a lot of popularity in the dev market. It is used by millions of developers to create a variety of software applications. The reason is that .NET offers a plethora of features to develop any type of software product as per the given requirements. Furthermore, the platform has seen great advancements in the last few years, providing more ease for developers to create cross-platform applications. This has further increased the popularity of the .NET framework, encouraging more developers to join its gigantic dev ecosystem.

The recent introduction of .NET 6 has further strengthened the development infrastructure of the platform. It has now become more feature-rich than ever, allowing developers to create advanced applications for the cloud, IoT, desktop, and mobile devices. You can also call it a perfect unified platform where you can get tons of development options according to your requirements. All you need to do is to become proficient in those dev technologies that are offered by .NET, such as Xamarin, ASP.NET Core, and others.

Meanwhile, besides having tons of features, the .NET framework still has limitations as well. These are precisely counted towards its disadvantages that certainly require immediate attention from Microsoft. In this article, we will be discussing the benefits as well as shortcomings of the .NET framework to help you educate better about this platform.

Let’s first take a look at the core models of .NET as that will help you to understand its overall development ecosystem.   

Core Models of .NET Development Platform

Many beginners do not know that .NET development technology has been categorized into four different types of layers. The models included in these layers are .NET Framework, .NET Core, Xamarin, and Universal Windows Platform (UWP). Their combined implementation offers a complete .NET development environment where people can create a variety of software applications.

Talking about .NET Framework, it is basically the first implementation of the development platform that was introduced in 2002. It is based on three major application models, i.e., ASP.NET Forms, WPF, and Windows Forms.

Meanwhile, the second version of the platform is .NET Core. It is an advanced and rebuilt form of the .NET Framework that allows developers to use the platform on Linux and macOS. This enhanced the capability of the older version to produce applications for Windows as well as other operating systems.

The third implementation of .NET comes in the form of Xamarin. It offers a very effective development infrastructure to create cross-platform mobile applications. The fourth most important .NET layer is called Universal Windows Platform (UWP). It provides a great unified infrastructure to develop applications capable of running on all Windows devices. This includes different platforms such as PC, tablets, Xbox, Surface Hub, and others. 

Advantages of .NET Development Framework

The popularity of the .NET development framework describes its importance in the dev world. Here are some of the core advantages you could get by using the .NET development platform.

Object Oriented Software Development Model

The biggest advantage of .NET is that it allows you to code applications with the concept of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). It is the core software programming model used by developers to create different types of applications. The .NET framework is quite exceptional in working with OOP and its coding strategies. It helps to make the code easier to understand by breaking down it into small pieces.

Using the .NET framework, you can work with a modular structure that helps to define the behavior of the objects in a significant manner. The framework also ensures to make the code reusable so that you can save some precious time while coding other similar types of functions. 

Fast and Simple Caching System

Caching is a technique that allows storing useful data in specific storage. This is precisely done to retrieve that data much faster and quicker compared to the conventional response time. .NET framework offers an advanced caching system that allows developers to optimize the speed of process calls. It is quite robust and simple to use, enabling developers to streamline different types of data retrieval in the application.

The built-in Object Cache class also helps developers to customize cache calls as per their requirements. It not only helps to optimize the performance but also the scalability of different client and server-based .NET applications.  

Vast Range of Libraries

.NET also provides access to thousands of libraries and third-party components in just one place. With the introduction of the .NET Standard in 2016, developers can now find a vast range of libraries for .NET Framework, .NET Core, and Xamarin easily. They can be used to perform different types of functions required in a software application. This includes graphics rendering, code formatting, database interactions, and others. 

Disadvantages of .NET Development Framework

Besides offering hundreds of exceptional development features, .NET also lacks in some key areas. Let’s discuss some of them below.

Licensing Cost

Though the .NET framework offers a plethora of options to develop an application, that doesn’t come without a hefty price. Building a software application on .NET is not cheap as you will need to buy some tools that will be needed in the development. The licensing cost required for Visual Studio is certainly a great example in this regard. Its enterprise version comes up with some additional development features, which is why it is offered in the market at an expensive price. So, if your project development budget is small, you will certainly struggle to get access to the top .NET development tools.

Challenging Transition to .NET Core

Though .NET Core is a great introduction by Microsoft to elevate the nature of the platform, it also offers some difficulties in the transition from the old framework. We have seen similar types of problems arising in other platforms as well, and we do understand that this requires some time to get settled properly. Those business applications that are built on .NET Framework, require a very diligent process to complete the transition to .NET Core. This certainly takes some time as well as requires expert skills from the developers to perform the transition smoothly to a new environment. 

Vendor Lock-in

.NET Framework is developed by Microsoft, which is why it holds all of the authority on the platform. This means that developers that are using .NET to create applications have lesser control over the policies of the framework. If Microsoft rolls out any change or update in the platform, then users will have to bear its implications on their software products. This fact is often criticized by developers, as they want complete control over their applications. 

Final Words

That concludes our article, in which we have discussed different types of advantages and disadvantages of the .NET framework. It is undoubtedly one of the best platforms to develop software applications. From websites to mobile applications, the framework has now become quite advanced to develop a variety of software products. However, it also has some limitations that need to be addressed by Microsoft as soon as possible. They are highlighted above in the article so that you could have a better understanding of them.