What Is .Net Software Development And Why Use .Net?

Developed by Microsoft, dotNET (also known as .NET) is a framework that makes application development an easier task for developers. The framework supports the development as well as maintenance of modern-day applications and XML web services. With consistent object-oriented programming environment for developers, .Net is used to build applications that can run on multiple platforms.

In this article, we will delve into every aspect of .NET software development, including its features, pricing, and recommendations for some of the best .NET application development services offered by leading software development companies.

1. What Are The Advantages of .Net?

“The .NET Framework (pronounced as “dot net”) is a software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large class library called Framework Class Library (FCL) and provides language interoperability (each language can use code written in other languages) across several programming languages.

Programs written for .NET Framework execute in a software environment (in contrast to a hardware environment) named the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR is an application virtual machine that provides services such as security, memory management, and exception handling.

As such, computer code written using .NET Framework is called “managed code”. FCL and CLR together constitute the .NET Framework.” – Wikipedia

The .NET Framework is a programming model that allows you to create and run apps for Windows, Windows Server, Windows Phone, Microsoft Azure, and XML Web services. Microsoft developed it, and it runs on Microsoft Windows. The Framework Class Library (FCL) is a comprehensive class library that offers language interoperability across many programming languages. The Common Language Runtime (CLR) is another component of the.NET Framework.

Long development times, inability to update applications rapidly, the high total cost of software ownership, and ease of deployment are only a few of the issues this Framework was created to address.

1.1. Why Companies Prefer .Net?

Microsoft’s .NET framework is one of the most widely used frameworks for developing software applications ranging from web to smartphone to Windows.

.NET framework can be easily used for the programming languages C#, C++, and VB.NET Shop. In addition, framework Class Library (FCL) and Common Language Runtime (CLR) are usually held by .NET (CLR).

1.2. The Advantages of Using .Net Software Development

• Platform Independence

.NET can be used to build any kind of application on any platform. Simply put, it is platform-agnostic (that is, it works on all platforms). For example, a .NET application development can run on various operating systems such as Android, iOS, Windows, and so on. .NET provides you with any possible solution when developing apps.

• Language support and easy deployment 

According to research, .NET currently supports 44 different languages. You have the option of using any language you like in your application. Another significant benefit is the ease with which .NET can be deployed. It offers support for application creation since it contains library class files.

• Best Architecture with Easy User Interface 

.NET Framework is a free and open-source website. For application development, you’ll need a powerful and dynamic IDE (Integrated Development Environment).

You can provide a practical application using the best-in-class architecture known as MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture and an easy-to-use interface and better UI controls.

• Higher Performance

.NET is swift, as it includes just-in-time compilation, and it delivers a sensitive result due to its speed and higher performance. In addition, the response time is short with better dynamic user interface combined with an excellent versatile method that will satisfy any developers.

• Security, Reliability, Compatibility, and Scalability

⇒ .NET is a highly secure platform for developing secure software.

⇒ .NET is still a safe and secure platform to work on.

⇒ You can reuse code and components with other device tasks because .NET is compatible.

⇒ .NET is more scalable and robust in any situation, and it loads faster.

2. The Applications of .Net

According to Stackoverflow’s survey in 2018 and 2019, .Net usage is only increasing, and businesses need to understand how they can and should be leveraging .NET in their software projects.

2.1. Website & Mobile App Development

The more modern version is ASP.NET Core, which is used to create interactive websites and web applications. The.NET framework is suitable for web applications since it works on almost every platform and supports operating systems such as Android, Windows, and iOS — it’s challenging to find something that the framework doesn’t support.

It’s difficult to compete with such a high degree of usability, particularly when it comes to app growth.

2.2. Desktop App & Game Development

With .NET, developers can target over 25+ different platforms with a single code base. Game Studios can make games for, but not limited to, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, and mixed reality devices. The .NET Android app development capabilities further enhance its versatility.

C# is the most popular programming language in game development. The wider .NET community is also significant. There is no lack of expertise and support you can find from individuals and user groups, locally or online.

2.3. Microservices

Microservices are services that are lightweight, scalable, and deployable independently. Docker containers (for Linux and Windows) make deployment and testing more manageable by combining service and its dependencies into a single unit that can be run in isolation.

2.4. Machine Learning

ML.NET is a free, open-source, cross-platform machine learning framework made specifically for .NET software developers. With ML.NET, developers can develop and integrate custom machine learning models into .NET applications without needing prior machine learning experience.

ML.NET is an extensible platform, with tooling in Visual Studio and a cross-platform CLI that powers recognized Microsoft features like Windows Hello, Bing Ads, PowerPoint Design Ideas, and more.

2.5. Cloud App

.NET enables you to build fast, modern, and scalable cloud applications on all major cloud platforms. Azure is the best cloud for .NET developers because it was built with .NET software developers in mind. As a result, hundreds of Azure products run .NET natively and are integrated with Visual Studio developer tools.

Use project templates to get started faster and powerful debugging, publishing, and CI/CD tools to be more productive with cloud app development, deployment, and monitoring.

2.6. Internet of Things App

.NET is highly scalable and efficient, making it ideal for IoT device programming due to its interoperability and high performance. .NET has all of the characteristics needed for IoT software creation. ASP.NET Core, in particular, provides a robust toolkit with best-in-class security and out-of-the-box performance as well as cloud integration.

IoT is now widely used in several industries for various applications, and.NET supports hundreds of sensors, displays, and input devices and operates on a variety of platforms and architectures, including popular IoT boards like the Raspberry Pi and Hummingboard.

3. What Are the Pros of .NET?

3.1. Object-Oriented Software Development Model

.NET is based on object-oriented programming (OOP). OOP is a development model for breaking down software into smaller pieces that are easier to manage and combine. OOP compartmentalizes data into objects, i.e., data fields, and describes objects’ behavior and contents through the declaration of classes.

A modular structure helps define the behavior of objects and their interactions without managing inner object attributes. OOP simplifies programming by making the code manageable, easier to test, and respond to recurring issues. It also eliminates unnecessary programming and generally means less coding for developers. .NET makes it possible to reuse code and components and save time and development costs.

3.2. Reliable and Simple Caching System

Caching means keeping data in a temporary storage place to call it faster when needed. The stored data results from an earlier information request or the duplicate of information stored in other areas that would take longer to retrieve.

The caching system in .NET is robust and straightforward to use, and it’s also designed to be extensible. The Object Cache class allows developers to create a custom cache implementation to improve the performance and scalability of Windows client and server applications.

3.3. Visual Studio IDE

An Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is a single product for programmers that makes application development more accessible by providing all the tools needed to write and test software.

Visual Studio is a Microsoft IDE used for building, debugging, and publishing applications across all platforms, including Android and iOS. Visual Studio is integrated with .NET and provides the features of a language-specific environment.

The key features of the Visual Studio IDE:

• It’s used as a single IDE for all .NET applications.
• The IDE has integrated compilation and debugging features.
• Collaborative features include a Git-first workflow, real-time collaboration on the same codebase, and integrated code reviews.
• The solution can be used for applications based on code written in different languages.
• Visual Studio allows for customizing the environment to match user preferences.

Additionally, Visual Studio Marketplace offers a wide range of editor extensions from Microsoft and other providers to enable team collaboration, continuous integration, third-party connections, cloud development management, etc.

3.4. Cross-Platform Design of .NET Core

.NET Core is a cross-platform .NET implementation that allows the code to run on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Unlike the original .NET framework – which is not entirely open – .NET Core has a fully open-source code that ensures that a vast engineering community can continuously contribute to its development.

If you’re writing in C#, F#, or Visual Basic, your code will run on each compatible operating system. This enables companies to reach the widest variety of platforms while staying within the .NET ecosystem. At the same time, the cross-platform design ensures that the whole .NET community, with a large pool of different engineering skillsets, shares the experience.

3.5. Flexible Deployment and Easy Maintenance

One of the critical .NET Core features is flexible deployment. It can be installed as a part of your application or require a separate installation. The modular design contemplates including all the dependencies you need, and the deployment itself is as easy as copying a folder.

Another benefit is having multiple .NET Core versions running side by side on the same machine to cover different projects and seamlessly perform deployment tasks.

3.6. Universal .NET Standard

Since 2016, the .NET ecosystem has been enhanced with an extensive class library called .NET Standard. It’s based on the number of base class libraries for .NET Framework, .NET Core, and Xamarin. These are used to work with standard functions such as graphics rendering, database interaction, and manipulations with XML documents. The .NET Standard library greatly simplified developers’ work.

Before .NET Standard, a programmer had to redevelop an application or a library for the new platform and then distribute all the updates across various platforms. Currently, the library supports all dependent libraries across applications. However, you should check version compatibility to leverage .NET Standard successfully.

3.7. .NET Popularity and Community

For those of you who are wondering just how popular .NET is, a large community of .NET software developers is the answer. Interestingly, it unites engineers from small, midsize, and enterprise-grade companies. This means that almost any issue can be resolved with the help of community members.

Since .NET Core is open source, its libraries, runtime, and compiler are available on GitHub and have many contributions. According to the Stack Overflow 2021 survey, ASP.NET took fifth among the most popular web frameworks.

3.8. Automatic Monitoring in ASP.NET

ASP.NET has built-in automatic monitoring. The Windows Web Server strictly monitors web pages and applications that run on it. In case any issues such as memory leaks or infinite loops occur, it immediately alerts about them. This allows for directly correcting these behaviors and creating new processes. The monitoring ensures higher stability and transparency of .NET applications.

3.9. Powerful Roslyn and RyuJIT Compilers

.NET uses two compilers, Roslyn, to compile C# or VB code into CIL (common intermediate language), and RyuJIT, to run a just-in-time compilation of CIL into native code. The .NET community highly regards both compilers as Microsoft actively improves them.

Roslyn has been available since 2011. In 2014, it became open source and in 2015 was included in Visual Studio. Besides being open source, Roslyn exposes APIs to offer rich code analysis for the developer. Unlike traditional black-box compilation, with Roslyn, Microsoft Net developers can read the compilation data at every stage.

RyuJIT is responsible for compiling CIL to byte code. The full transition from the old JIT was completed in 2018 with the idea of improved performance. And generally, engineers agree that RyuJIT is faster. According to .NET 5 Preview 1 and Preview 2 released in spring 2020, numerous improvements to RyuJIT were made to enhance the quality of the machine code generated by JIT (“code quality” as Microsoft specialists call it). “In summary, about half of the following improvements are actual new optimizations, and the other half is due to changing the flow of RyuJIT to enable existing optimizations to apply to more code patterns,” noted .NET Team Program Manager Richard Lander.

3.10. Active Microsoft Support

Since .NET is Microsoft’s platform technology, you expect the company to support and develop it actively. But the point is that Microsoft is good at what they are doing. Perhaps there’s no other technology company with such a complete and coherent ecosystem that checks off all boxes for engineers, from IDEs and frameworks to cloud services.

As a leading .NET software development company, Microsoft does its best to evolve further. The transition to .NET Core was a significant step in ecosystem development, as it embraced the cloud and focused on performance improvements.

In 2018 Microsoft introduced the ML.NET framework for C# and F# languages. Also, let’s keep in mind the releases of .NET 5 and .NET 6 are already here, with .NET 7 being projected for 2022.

3.11. Easy Migration From .NET 5 to .NET 6

If you keep your applications constantly updated with the newest .NET versions, migrating from .NET 5.0 to .NET 6.0 won’t be a big headache. You first change the target framework from .NET 5.0 to .NET 6.0 on the Properties of your projects in Visual Studio 2022. Then you upgrade the rest of the packages within the project and run QA processes to see how everything performs.

Unlike the above, the migration from .NET Framework to .NET Core or between some .NET Core versions is not a walk in the park. In case your projects are based on earlier versions like .NET Core 3.1, migrating the app to .NET 5 before making a move towards the latest release is recommended.

4. What Are the Cons of .NET?

• Some Licensing Requirements. Not the entire ecosystem is open source. Some tools do require licensing, especially those released and distributed by Microsoft. Microsoft retains control over the product through the Microsoft Foundation.
• Memory Leaks. .NET has been known to experience memory leaks and issues caching. Of course, this is an issue for many languages — it’s not exclusive to .NET. Still, developers trying to produce lean products may be more inclined to use another language.
• Language. Though .NET supports programming in C#, F#, and Visual Basic, it doesn’t support all major programming languages. Developers who program in Java or Python, for instance, will not be able to program in .NET without learning another language entirely.

Some developers consider .NET an archaic or antiquated technology. While this may be true for earlier versions of the .NET Framework, .NET continues to grow and advance as an open-source product fueled by an active community. Additionally, embracing custom .NET software development allows developers to tailor solutions to specific business needs and overcome perceived language limitations.

5. Best Way To Hire .Net Software Developer

Another factual explanation given by Statista concerning .NET implementation is the framework’s use in 2020. Unlike other frameworks, libraries, and software, the survey discovered that 35.1 percent of respondents use .NET for different purposes, second only to Node.js.

5.1. Global .Net Developer Rate

With its place being high on the most used framework ranking list, most Python developer hourly rates range from $40 to $60 per hour globally.

5.2. Hire .Net Developer in Vietnam, Why?

Microsoft Net Developer hourly rates in Vietnam IT Market range from $20 to $40 depended on the experience and position of the developer.
Compared to hiring a developer in the United States or other countries like the UK, Netherlands, Ukraine, etc., the cost of hiring a developer in Vietnam is considerably lower. For example, a Vietnamese developer would cost you around 50 percent less than the global Python Outsourcing cost mentioned above.
According to TopDev’s report, Vietnam has about 400.000 IT Enginners and over 50.000 graduated IT Students from over 153 IT Institutions per year.

• Vietnam ranks 29th in terms of Skillvalue Worldwide in Developer Skills Chart Of Skill Value Report in 2018.
• Top 06 worldwide in Developer Skills Charts Of Topcoder Report in 2016.
• Rank 23rd worldwide in Developer Skills Charts of Hackerrank’s Report in 2016.

The .NET software outsourcing industry in Vietnam benefits from this robust IT ecosystem. And since the primary goal of outsourcing is to reduce costs, here at Savvycom, we always aim to provide the best possible quality at the most reasonable price for a growing business.

6. Conclusion

Dot Net Software is a Microsoft platform for creating apps, web software, and user interfaces. .NET is only one of Microsoft’s frameworks, but it’s the most common option for Windows servers on both local networks and in the cloud.