Backend
ASP.NET
High-throughput web APIs and applications on modern, cross-platform .NET — built by senior engineers who run what they ship.
Overview
ASP.NET Core is Microsoft’s modern web framework: open-source, cross-platform, and built on .NET. It is a full reinvention of the older ASP.NET, rebuilt from the ground up to run on Linux and macOS as happily as on Windows, and it is genuinely fast — in independent, third-party benchmarks it consistently sits among the highest-throughput web frameworks available on any runtime, not just its own ecosystem. That performance is not marketing; it comes from a compiled language, an efficient request pipeline, and years of deliberate optimisation work in the runtime and the framework.
It is important to be precise about which ASP.NET we mean, because two very different things share the name. Legacy ASP.NET — the .NET Framework version — is Windows-only, tied to IIS, and now in maintenance rather than active development. ASP.NET Core is the modern, cross-platform framework that runs everywhere and receives the new features. Everything on this page is about ASP.NET Core. If you have an older .NET Framework application, we can work with it and advise honestly on whether and how to migrate — but new work belongs on ASP.NET Core, and the distinction changes what your systems can run on and how they are hosted.
The way we use it is unglamorous and deliberate. At the centre sits the request middleware pipeline — an ordered chain of components that each request passes through, where authentication, routing, error handling, and your own logic slot in at explicit points. On top of that pipeline you can build MVC controllers, Razor Pages, a Web API, or Minimal APIs, and reach for Blazor when you want C# in the browser, SignalR for real-time, and Entity Framework Core for data access. We treat these as tools to pick from, not a stack to adopt wholesale, and we choose the smallest set that solves the problem in front of us.
Best for — Enterprise web APIs, high-throughput back-end services, and full applications for teams working in C#/.NET — especially where Azure is the hosting platform.
Why teams choose ASP.NET
Performance you can bank on
ASP.NET Core is among the fastest mainstream web frameworks in independent benchmarks. For high-traffic APIs that means more requests per server and lower hosting cost, without dropping into hand-tuned, hard-to-maintain code to get there.
One language, front to back
C# spans the API, background workers, tooling, and — through Blazor — the browser. A team that knows the language works across the whole system, sharing models and validation logic instead of re-implementing them in a second language.
Batteries that are actually included
Dependency injection, configuration, logging, authentication, and Entity Framework Core ship as first-class parts of the framework, not bolted-on libraries. You assemble far less plumbing, and the pieces are designed to work together.
Why businesses choose ASP.NET
- You are building serious back-end systems — APIs and services that must be fast, correct, and maintainable for years — and you want a framework that takes those requirements seriously.
- Your team lives in C#/.NET, or you want a single, strongly-typed language across the whole stack rather than a different one at every tier.
- Azure is your platform, and you want a framework whose deployment, identity, configuration and diagnostics slot into it with almost no friction.
- You value mature, cohesive tooling and a framework that makes sensible decisions for you, over the assemble-it-yourself flexibility of a lighter ecosystem.
What we build with ASP.NET
The capabilities this technology is genuinely strong at — and what we most often build with it.
The request middleware pipeline
Every request flows through an ordered chain of middleware — exception handling, HTTPS redirection, routing, authentication, authorisation, then your endpoints — each with a clear place to act. We compose this pipeline deliberately, because getting the order and responsibilities right is what keeps cross-cutting concerns out of your business logic.
MVC, Razor Pages, Web API and Minimal APIs
The framework offers several models on one foundation: MVC controllers for structured applications, Razor Pages for page-focused server rendering, Web API for REST services, and Minimal APIs for lean, low-ceremony endpoints. We pick per project rather than by habit — Minimal APIs for a small service, controllers where structure earns its keep.
Entity Framework Core
EF Core is the data-access layer we reach for most: a mature ORM with LINQ queries, migrations that version your schema, and change tracking. We use it well — watching generated SQL, avoiding N+1 queries, and dropping to raw SQL where a query genuinely needs it — rather than treating it as a black box.
Blazor — C# in the browser
Blazor lets you write interactive UI in C# instead of JavaScript, either running in the browser via WebAssembly or on the server over a live connection. We use it where a .NET team benefits from one language end to end, and we are candid about the WebAssembly payload and startup trade-offs before you commit to it.
SignalR for real-time
SignalR handles real-time, bidirectional communication — live dashboards, notifications, chat, collaborative updates — over WebSockets with automatic fallbacks. It manages connections, groups and reconnection so you build features rather than transport plumbing.
Built-in DI, configuration and identity
Dependency injection, layered configuration (files, environment, secrets), and ASP.NET Core Identity for authentication are first-class parts of the framework. That gives testable, loosely-coupled code and a proven auth foundation without stitching together third-party libraries that were never meant to fit together.
Use cases
Enterprise Web APIs
REST services behind web and mobile front ends, or between systems — where routing, model binding, validation, versioning and auth need to be solid and consistent across dozens of endpoints.
High-throughput back-end services
Services under real load — payment processing, event ingestion, internal platforms — where the runtime’s performance turns directly into fewer servers and lower cost per request.
Line-of-business applications
Internal tools and operational systems for teams already on .NET, often with Razor Pages or Blazor Server for the UI and EF Core against SQL Server or PostgreSQL behind it.
Real-time features
Live dashboards, notifications, and collaborative interfaces built on SignalR, where updates must reach connected clients the moment state changes rather than on the next poll.
When ASP.NET is the right choice
- Right when you are building enterprise web APIs and back-end services — clean routing, model binding, validation, dependency injection and a mature auth story mean you write business logic rather than plumbing.
- Right when your team already works in C# and .NET, or wants to. The framework rewards that investment, and a single language spanning back end, tooling and — via Blazor — the browser reduces context-switching.
- Right when you need genuine high throughput. ASP.NET Core’s benchmark standing is real, and for services under heavy load a compiled runtime and an efficient pipeline give you headroom that lighter interpreted stacks have to work hard to match.
- Right when you are hosting on Azure. The integration is first-class — identity, configuration, secrets, deployment and diagnostics line up with almost no friction — and if Azure is already your platform, ASP.NET Core is the path of least resistance.
- Wrong for a tiny stateless microservice or a throwaway script where a minimal Node or Go binary starts faster, deploys smaller and carries less runtime weight. ASP.NET Core is lean by modern .NET standards, but it is still heavier than those for the very smallest workloads, and honesty about that saves you resources you do not need to spend.
ASP.NET: pros and cons
Strengths
- Exceptional performance — a compiled runtime and an efficient request pipeline put it near the top of independent cross-language web benchmarks.
- Cross-platform and open-source: the same code runs on Linux, macOS and Windows, in containers or on bare servers, with no Windows lock-in.
- A cohesive, batteries-included framework — DI, configuration, auth, and EF Core are built in and consistent, so you write less glue and inherit fewer incompatible choices.
- Outstanding tooling: Visual Studio and Rider give you a debugger, profiler, and refactoring support that few ecosystems match, which pays off on large, long-lived codebases.
Trade-offs
- It is strongest inside the Microsoft ecosystem, and there is a real gravitational pull toward Azure and, historically, Windows shops. It runs anywhere, but the smoothest paths lead back to Microsoft’s platform, which is a dependency to weigh consciously.
- The C#/.NET hiring pool is smaller than JavaScript’s in some startup and agency markets. The talent is excellent, but in certain cities you will fish in a smaller pond than you would for a Node front end.
- Blazor WebAssembly is genuinely useful but has trade-offs — a larger initial download and slower cold start than a hand-optimised JavaScript SPA, because the browser has to fetch and start a .NET runtime. It is a deliberate choice, not a free lunch.
- For the very smallest services, it is heavier than a minimal Node or Go binary. The gap has narrowed a lot with modern .NET and Minimal APIs, but if your workload is a handful of trivial endpoints, a lighter runtime may fit better.
Architecture
We build ASP.NET Core systems around clear layering: an API or UI layer that owns HTTP concerns, an application layer that holds business logic, and an infrastructure layer for data access and external services. Dependency injection — built into the framework — is what keeps those layers honest, so business logic depends on interfaces rather than concrete database or HTTP code, and stays testable in isolation. The middleware pipeline sits above all of it, handling the cross-cutting concerns that would otherwise leak into every handler.
Beyond that we resist over-engineering. Not every service needs a full clean-architecture ceremony; a Minimal API with a couple of well-named classes is often the right answer for a small service, and a richer MVC structure earns its place only when the domain justifies it. We decide that boundary early and deliberately, because the cost of a too-heavy architecture is paid on every change, and the cost of a too-thin one is paid the day the service grows past it.
Performance
ASP.NET Core’s benchmark standing is real, but a fast framework does not guarantee a fast application. The common bottlenecks are in the data layer and the code around it: chatty Entity Framework Core queries, N+1 access patterns, missing indexes, and synchronous calls that block threads under load. We profile against realistic data rather than guessing, watch the SQL EF Core actually generates, and use asynchronous request handling throughout so the server stays responsive when concurrency climbs.
Where it counts, we lean on what the framework gives us — response caching, output caching, and a distributed cache such as Redis for hot data — and we keep allocations down on the paths that run millions of times. Modern .NET offers ahead-of-time compilation and trimming for faster startup and smaller footprints, which we apply where cold-start or container size genuinely matters. The goal is always measured improvement against a real workload, not tuning for its own sake.
Security
ASP.NET Core gives you a strong security foundation: ASP.NET Core Identity for authentication, a clear authorisation model with policies and roles, built-in protection against cross-site request forgery, data protection APIs for encrypting sensitive values, and safe-by-default output encoding in Razor that heads off most cross-site scripting. We build on those rather than reinventing them, because rolling your own auth is one of the most expensive mistakes a team can make.
The discipline is in using them properly. We enforce authorisation on the server at every endpoint, never trusting the client; we keep secrets out of source control using the configuration and secrets systems, backed by a vault in production; we validate and bind input carefully to avoid over-posting; and we keep dependencies current, since third-party packages are attack surface like anywhere else. Auth, transport security, and secret handling are deliberate decisions, not defaults inherited from a template.
Scalability
ASP.NET Core scales out cleanly when applications are designed to be stateless — no reliance on in-process session state, so any instance can serve any request and you add capacity by running more instances behind a load balancer. Shared state lives in a distributed cache like Redis or in the database, and background work moves to hosted services or a queue rather than blocking request threads. Get that right and horizontal scaling becomes a matter of configuration, not rearchitecture.
The framework containers well and is at home under Docker and Kubernetes, which is where most scaled ASP.NET Core systems now run. On Azure, that extends naturally into managed hosting and autoscaling. We design for this from the start — externalising state, making services independently deployable, and keeping data access efficient — because the throughput ceiling of a well-built ASP.NET Core service is usually set by the database and the surrounding architecture, not the framework.
ASP.NET integrations & ecosystem
The technologies we most often pair with it — each links to how we work with it.
How we work
We start by settling the choices that are cheap now and expensive later: which application model fits (Minimal API, controllers, Razor Pages or Blazor), how the layers are drawn, where data access sits, and what the auth and hosting story is. Then we build in thin vertical slices — a real endpoint or feature, running in an environment that resembles production, with EF Core migrations and tests from the first slice rather than retrofitted at the end.
The engineers who design the service are the ones who write it and keep it running. That is what we mean by operating what we build: decisions are made by people who will live with the consequences, so we favour durable, well-understood patterns over whatever is fashionable, and we are honest about trade-offs — including telling you when ASP.NET Core is heavier than your workload needs. You get strongly-typed code, sensible architecture, and a system your own .NET team can pick up and extend.
The service behind it
Delivered throughCustom Software DevelopmentWhat we build with ASP.NET
The disciplines this technology most often shows up in — from a first build to taking over and stabilising an existing one.
How we deliver
- 01
Discover
We map the system, the constraints and the business it serves — including the parts nobody documented.
Architecture brief
- 02
Architect
Decisions get made, written down and defended before a line of production code exists.
Decision records
- 03
Build
Short cycles against working software. You see progress in the product, not in a status deck.
Shipping increments
- 04
Operate
Monitoring, incident response and iteration. The system is alive, so the engagement is too.
Runbooks & SLOs
Industries we use ASP.NET in
Domain knowledge changes what gets built. A few of the sectors we know before the first meeting.
Also in Backend
Why teams choose us for ASP.NET
Senior engineers only
The people designing your .NET architecture have built and run production systems on it before. There are no juniors learning EF Core or the middleware pipeline on your project.
We operate what we build
We run the services we ship, so we optimise for the maintenance reality — efficient queries, sensible layering, code your team can extend — not for a demo that looks finished and falls over under load.
Honest about the ecosystem
If your workload is better served by a lighter runtime, or your team’s skills point elsewhere, we will say so before you commit. We would rather scope the right tool than sell you the one we happen to write.
Fluent across the stack
From Minimal APIs to Blazor, SignalR to EF Core, and self-hosted containers to Azure, we know the framework’s breadth well enough to use the smallest part that solves your problem.
Typical timeline
- 01
Discovery and architecture
One to two weeks agreeing the application model, data design, auth approach and hosting target, so the foundations are settled before code volume grows.
- 02
First vertical slice
Two to three weeks delivering one real feature end to end — endpoint, data access, tests and deployment — proving the architecture against reality rather than a diagram.
- 03
Iterative build
Feature-by-feature delivery in short cycles, each shippable, with performance and security checks made as we go rather than bolted on at the end.
- 04
Hardening and handover
Load and performance profiling against realistic data, test coverage on the load-bearing paths, and documentation so your team can own and run the service.
How pricing works
- Fixed-scope builds for well-defined services — a Web API, an internal application, a specific integration — quoted once we understand the endpoints, data model and load expectations.
- Monthly senior engagement for ongoing product work, where scope evolves across sprints and you want continuity rather than a one-off deliverable.
- Focused audits and rescues for existing .NET codebases — performance profiling, an architecture review, or a legacy ASP.NET to ASP.NET Core migration assessment — priced by the piece of work.
Hire ASP.NET engineers
Need ASP.NET capacity on your own team? We embed named senior engineers into your existing team — reporting to your leads, working in your rituals — so you add capacity without a hiring cycle.
Hire ASP.NET engineersCommon questions
What is the difference between ASP.NET Core and ASP.NET?
They share a name but are different frameworks. Legacy ASP.NET runs on the older .NET Framework, is Windows-only and tied to IIS, and is now in maintenance rather than active development. ASP.NET Core is the modern, open-source rewrite: cross-platform, faster, and where all new features go. New work should be on ASP.NET Core. If you have a legacy application, we can advise honestly on whether and how to migrate.
Does ASP.NET Core only run on Windows?
No — that is the old ASP.NET. ASP.NET Core runs natively on Linux, macOS and Windows, and is very much at home in Docker containers and on Kubernetes. Most scaled deployments we build run on Linux. You are not locked into Windows or IIS, though Azure and Windows environments remain the smoothest paths if that is already your platform.
Is ASP.NET Core actually fast, or is that marketing?
It is genuinely fast. In independent, third-party benchmarks that compare frameworks across many languages, ASP.NET Core consistently ranks near the top for request throughput — this is not a claim limited to its own ecosystem. That said, a fast framework does not make a slow application fast: real performance work is usually in the data layer, not the framework, and that is where we focus.
Should we use Blazor instead of React or Angular?
It depends on your team and your constraints. Blazor lets a .NET team build interactive UI in C# with no context-switch to JavaScript, which is a real advantage when C# is your strength. But Blazor WebAssembly ships a .NET runtime to the browser, so it has a larger initial download and slower cold start than a lean JavaScript SPA. For a public site where first-load speed is critical, that trade-off matters; for an internal app, it often does not. We will talk it through honestly before you commit.
Do we have to host on Azure to use ASP.NET Core?
No. ASP.NET Core runs anywhere — any cloud, your own servers, or containers on Kubernetes. Azure integration is first-class and the least-friction option if you are already there, but it is a convenience, not a requirement. We build systems to be portable, and we will host wherever suits your platform and budget rather than defaulting to one vendor.
Building on ASP.NET?
A technical conversation with the engineers who would do the work. If we are not the right fit, we will say so on the call.