Can C# be used for web development?
Yes, C# can be used for web development with the ASP.NET Framework, C# is one of the most popular programming languages for building full-stack web applications.
Since its invention in 2000 by Anders Hejlsberg of Denmark at Microsoft, C# has grown in popularity and usage. ASP.NET which uses the C# programming language for web development is the second most widely used server-side implementation after PHP.
According to statistics from w3techs.com, “ASP.NET (C#) is used by 7.8% of all the websites whose server-side programming language we know.” C# is one of the popular choices for many companies and businesses for web development.
According to a Stack overflow survey of 2022, C# is used by 27.98% of professional developers. C# is also loved among developers. The same survey reported that 63.39% of professional developers loved it versus 36.61% of developers who dreaded it
The C# programming language runs on the .NET Framework and ASP.NET extends the .NET platform with tools and libraries for building web applications. Because ASP.NET extends .NET, you can use the large ecosystem of packages and libraries available to all .NET developers.
C# helps developers to build many types of secure and robust applications that run in .NET. C# is similar in syntax to programming languages like Java and C++, if you have worked with any of these or with JavaScript before, you will have no problems working with C#.
C# can be used on both the front end and the server side of your web applications, You can make full-stack web applications, REST APIs, microservices, and real-time applications using ASP.NET.
You can also make interactive web UIs using Blazor. Blazor is a feature of ASP.NET for building interactive web UIs using C# instead of JavaScript. Blazor gives you real .NET running in the browser on WebAssembly.
There are many companies that use C# for web development. some of the popular ones include
- Stack Overflow
- Microsoft Teams
- Godaddy
- Dell
- ShoWorks
- The Postage
- Lightsail
- Marketwatch
- Zero Friction
- Allegiance Consulting
- Astro Reality
- GE Aviation
- Ancestry
- Stadio
- TacoBell
- Raygun
- VQ Communications
- Siemens Healthineers
- Tencent
- Diply
- Wild Tangent
- MSN
and many others
If for some reason you have difficulties using C# for web development, there are many other alternatives that you can use for frontend and server-side programming.
ARE THERE ALTERNATIVES TO C# FOR WEB DEVELOPMENT?
Yes, there are many frontend and server-side programming languages and frameworks that you can use as alternatives to C#. Here are some of the popular ones:
PHP
PHP is the most popular server-side programming language, it powers more websites on the internet than the rest of the server-side programming languages put together.
According to statistics from w3techs.com, “PHP is used by 77.5% of all the websites whose server-side programming language we know.” PHP website usage has been decreasing over the years, but it will take more than 25 years to decrease to 50% at the rate at which it is decreasing.
To make your development process easy, quick, and well-structured, you can use PHP frameworks such as Laravel, Symfony, CodeIgniter, Slim, Zend, Phalcon, CakePHP, and many others.
PHP is used by many popular platforms and websites such as WordPress, Drupal, Wikipedia, Facebook, Slack, Etsy, Tumblr, MailChimp, etc. PHP is simple to work with and it is a great alternative to C#.
NODE.JS
Node.js is an open-source Javascript runtime environment that runs on the V8 Engine. It is cross-platform and is used to run Javascript outside of the web browser. Node.js is used by web developers for server scripting.
It is commonly used in the Javascript stack such as the MERN (MongoDB, Express.js, React, Node) and MEAN (MongoDB, Express, Angular, Node) Stack. To make it easy to work with Node.js, frameworks such as Express.js, Sails.js, Koa.js, etc. are popularly used.
You can use Node.js as an alternative to C#, especially if you like working with Javascript.
PYTHON
Python has an easy-to-understand syntax that makes it easy to write code. Getting started with Python is much easier than with C#.
Python is used a lot by web developers and companies for backend development. According to a 2021 Stack Overflow survey, Python is the third most used programming language by professional developers.
Python Django is one of the most popular web development frameworks, it was used to build part of the Instagram backend. Other python web frameworks that can be used in place of C# include Flask, FastAPI, CherryPy, Falcon, etc.
JAVASCRIPT FRAMEWORKS
Instead of using Blazor (C#) in the front end of your web application, you can use more popular front-end frameworks and libraries such as React, Angular, Vue, or Svelte. These frameworks are much easy to work with than Kotlin.
JAVA
You can also use Java as an alternative to C# for server-side programming. Java is used by many websites, especially in the enterprise world.
You can learn more about how Java is used in Web Development in our article DO YOU NEED JAVA FOR WEB DEVELOPMENT?
GO
Go is an open-source programming language supported by Google, Go is used in web development to power fast and scalable web applications. It is a good alternative to C#.
Some of the companies using Go include Google, PayPal, Meta, American Express, Bitly, Capital One, Twitter, Wild Life, Uber, Microsoft, Twitch, Salesforce, Dropbox, Riot Games, Netflix, CloudFlare, and many others.
RUBY
Since its invention in 1995 by Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto of Japan, Ruby has grown in popularity and usage to become the third most widely used server-side programming language after PHP and ASP.NET.
According to statistics from w3techs.com, “Ruby is used by 5.9% of all the websites whose server-side programming language we know.” Ruby’s usage for making websites has been decreasing over the years, but it is still one of the popular choices for many companies and startups.
Ruby is much easier to work with than C#, its syntax is simple, elegant, and English-like, similar to that of Python.
Getting started with Ruby and Ruby on Rails for web development is very easy and you will serve a lot of development time using this language and its framework.
The popular online E-commerce store builder Shopify was written in Ruby (Ruby on Rails). Other popular websites using Ruby include Twitter, Github, Basecamp, Airbnb, Dribbble, Hulu, Kickstarter, Zendesk, Fiverr, SoundCloud, and many others.
CONCLUSION
It can be seen that C# can be used for web development and it is a popular choice among developers and companies for building web applications.
If you want to make a website without writing any server-side or frontend code, you can use Website builders like Bubble, WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Zyro, etc. to do all the heavy lifting for you. You can make powerful websites without writing any lines of code.