Difference Between ASP vs ASP.NET
Microsoft developed Classic ASP, also known as ASP, as the first server-side scripting engine for dynamically generating web pages. An engine interprets the server-side scripting code by reading and executing all the code between the script <% and %> tags. The engine then sends the resulting content to the client’s web browser. On the other hand, ASP.NET is an open-source server-side web framework that Microsoft developed to meet the need for dynamic web pages in modern web development.
ASP
- The scripts are written mainly in VBScript, PerlScript, or JScript. When discussing ASP and ASP.NET architecture, ASP uses server-side scripting to generate the content already sent to the client’s web browser.
- The ASP server-side scripting engine processes web pages with a filename extension of .asp. However, some websites may avoid using .asp in their URLs for security reasons and instead promote the usage of file extensions such as .htm or .html.
- ASP is a Microsoft-based technology and runs on Windows web servers. However, there are also products available that can emulate the functionality of ASP on web servers that are not based on Microsoft technology.
ASP.NET
- ASP.NET is a part of the them.Net framework and has collaborated with other frameworks such as entity framework, which in turn uses another open-source, Roslyn, or the.Net compiler platform, which is cross-platform in nature. This supports a unified MVC (Model-View-Controller) with the combination of ASP.NET Web API, ASP.NET MVC, and ASP.NET Web Pages. When it comes to the architecture of ASP.NET, it consists of three major components, viz: language, Library, and Common Language Runtime.
- Various languages are available for the .net framework, such as VB.NET and C#. The .Net framework comprises a set of standard libraries. The Web library is the most commonly used because it contains all the necessary components for developing a web-based application. The CLR or Common Language runtime performs key functional activities such as Garbage collection and Exception handling.
Head to Head Comparison Between ASP vs ASP.NET (Infographics)
Below is the top 13 difference between ASP vs ASP.NET:
Key Differences Between ASP and ASP.NET
Both ASP vs ASP.NET are popular choices in the market; let us discuss some of the major Difference Between ASP and ASP.NET:
- The components used and deployed in ASP applications took a lot of work to replace or update. To return, you had to shut down the server (IIS) manually, replace it and restart it, whereas in the case of ASP.NET did not hold a reference of the component file with the running application, and the following version file was picked up to ensure replacement without addressing to the above problem.
- Apache webserver and other non-Microsoft-based technology platforms cannot run ASP, while ASP.NET can be integrated successfully with them. One example of a web server that can be combined with Apache is Cassini.
- Only two language support is provided in the case of ASP, VBScript, and JScript/Javascript, whereas ASP.NET can also include C# and VB.NET.
- In contrast, in the case of ASP.NET, the pages are compiled into classes and can be debugged using the same debugging tools, which are also available for desktop applications.
ASP vs ASP.NET Comparison Table
The primary Comparison between ASP vs ASP.NET is discussed below.
| Basis of Comparison |
ASP |
ASP.NET |
| Definition | ASP is the server-side scripting engine or, in simple words, a scripting language | ASP.NET is the web formulation of any compiled language such as VB, C#, J#, Net, C++. |
| Object-Oriented approach | Not object-oriented | It is object-oriented |
| Process Isolation | It runs under the inetifo.exe (IIS) process space | It is a distinct process, such as aspnet_wp.exe, which is separate from the IIS process. |
| Interpreter and Compiler | When a client requests a page, the server parses the page text in a linear and extracts all the non-server side content. An interpreter such as JScript or VBScript is typically used to return this content to the client as a response. | The pages are always compiled into .NET classes sandwiched between assemblies which include the static HTML and the server-side code. |
| Performance Degradation | Interpreting ASP scripts on the fly can result in a performance hit. Because the scripts are not pre-compiled, they must be parsed and executed every time they are requested. | There is no performance hit, as all the components are assemblies. |
| Performance Improvement | Regarding server-side scripting, using evaluation blocks and static HTML can result in lower efficiency. Multiple invocations of the interpreter can slow down an application’s performance. To improve performance, developers often use large blocks of code instead of smaller ones. | ASP.NET doesn’t have to do anything related to performance improvement. |
| Debugging | Debugging is difficult as the ASP scripts are interpreted | Errors are generated as compile-type errors, and therefore debugging is easy |
| Code Containment | No facility to separate design from programming logic | It has a code-behind file to contain all event-handling code |
| Inheritance | No concept of inheritance | Web forms inherit the code class |
| Language Used | It uses a scripting language | Web forms use a programming language |
| Configurable | Not configurable | Developers use Web.config for configuration. |
| Custom Controller | No provision for custom controls | @register directive can create custom controls |
| ADO Support | The ADO has a simple COM object with a limited set of facilities | ADO.NET supports XML integration from multiple data sources |
Conclusion
ASP is the traditional one, while ASP.NET has many advanced features and functionalities as far as performance and other parameters are concerned. Still, there can be a requirement where using ASP can be of an added advantage, so a recommendation is to wisely choose the product as per the project need and business requirements. I hope now you must have got a fairer idea of both ASP vs ASP.NET. Stay tuned to our blog for more posts like these.
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