ASP.NET MVC vs. Webforms vs. HTTP Handlers (.ashx) - which is the most lightweight? [closed]

Answer 1

ASP.NET MVC, Web Forms and the Generic Handler (.ashx) are all HttpHandlers implementing the IHttpHandler interface.

Out of these options the Generic Handler (.ashx) would be the most lightweight.

Answer 2

Omit the third option because it is very hard to control the application if it is all built using HttpHandlers.

basic server side logic / dynamic db driven content about half a dozen to

One of the major benefits of ASP.NET MVC is the ease of the separation of concerns. +1

a dozen pages serving up all said content no need for URL rewriting, pretty simple page flow/routing

ASP.NET MVC will give you an easy interface to set your routes, a lightweight,clear, and controllable views. +1

Answer 3

ASp.NET MVC is as close as you can get to HtTP and Html.

Answer 4

MVC very much gives you more control over HTML produced. So, from a bandwidth perspective, it definitely has better performance. With this may also come conciseness of code to generate this HTML.

However, MVC doe not improve business/data layer, or database performance, it just separates them. If you want to analyze, having multiple layers does not improve performance, just the structure of the program, which in turn may lend itself to methods for adding more performance.

A down side to MVC is learning how to think MVC and learning how to use the framework. If that is not an issue, go for MVC, it will teach you some good habits, if you don't have them already.

And finally, HTTP Handlers are not really meant for being used in this way, they are for things like file proxies.

Answer 5

You should use MVC, because you have a lot of more control about the generated client code than in WebForms, and is simpler than ashx handlers.

Answer 6

HttpHandlers are the most light weight, because the interface behind the ASHX file is IHttpHandler which is the basis of the Page object that is used both for Web Forms and MVC.