Feb 19, 2023
What is aspnetboilerplate?
ASP.NET Boilerplate (aspnetboilerplate.com) is a web application framework that is built on top of the popular ASP.NET Core framework. It provides a set of pre-built tools and components to help developers quickly build scalable and maintainable applications.
It has been around for many years and I have used it extensively in the past. It provided a great starter kit for .NET applications, but has fallen out of favor in the past several years.
It has been around for many years and I have used it extensively in the past. It provided a great starter kit for .NET applications, but has fallen out of favor in the past several years.
Confusion of ASP.NET Boilerplate vs ASP.NET Zero vs ABP Framework vs ABP Commercial
Over the years there seems to have been added confusion and/or deprecation of older versions. It seems a bit unclear, but from what we gather, the current state of development is the following:
- aspnetboilerplate, aka ASP.NET Boilerplate remains as the base line fundamental infrastructure without any account management functionality, UI work. This is free and open source.
- aspnetzero, aka ASP.NET Zero is built on top of ASP.NET Boilerplate but includes admin interface and authentication / account management features. However, this requires a commercial license.
- ABP Framework, aka abp.io, is the next generation, built with modular components, and the community version is free.
- ABP Commercial, similar to that of aspnetzero is to aspnetboilerplate, this commercial version adds features and functionality on top of the ABP community version.
Criticisms of aspnetboilerplate / ABP
There are two main criticisms of these:
- Bloated and slow. ABP in particular is known for having so many different modules, many of which contain features you may not need. This results in significantly more overhead and the application is slower and consumes more compute resources than a comparable lightweight framework.
- Overly opinionated. Given how expansive these system architectures are, they require a substantial learning curve and are quite opinionated in the manner in which you must build on top of them. You may find that you are trying to build around the boundaries set forth by the framework, resulting in zero hours saved.
Alternatives to aspnetboilerplate and ABP
The most popular, and lightweight alternative for the .NET ecosystem is CleanArchitecture built with the well known CQRS design pattern. However, CleanArchitecture is empty and does not come with any built-in functionality for admin panel or account management.
This is where Raytha comes in. Raytha is a lightweight open source .NET CMS built on top of CleanArchitecture. In a way, Raytha is the ASP.NET Zero equivalent to CleanArchitecture, but free and open source.
Check out Raytha today.
This is where Raytha comes in. Raytha is a lightweight open source .NET CMS built on top of CleanArchitecture. In a way, Raytha is the ASP.NET Zero equivalent to CleanArchitecture, but free and open source.
Check out Raytha today.