What is Asp.Net Core?

ASP.NET Core is the open-source version of ASP.NET, that runs on mac OS, Linux, and Windows.

It was first released in 2016 and is a re-design of earlier Windows-only versions of ASP.NET.

Performance

      Performance is a key focus of ASP.NET Core. It's faster than other popular web frameworks in the independent TechEmpower benchmarks.

Confusions About Asp.Net

      ASP.NET Core is a collection of libraries that form a Framework for building web applications. ASP.NET Core libraries can be used on both .NET Core and the "Full .NET Framework" (which has shipped with windows for many years).

The confusing part is that an application using the libraries and tools of ASP.NET Core is usually referred to as "ASP.NET Core Application", which in theory doesn't say if it is built for .NET Core or .NET Framework. So an "ASP.NET Core Application" is also a ".NET Core Application" or a ".NET Framework Application".

Clarifications

• ASP.NET Core using .NET Core - all dependencies are self-contained, can use most NuGet packages, can't use Windows-specific packages, can execute on Windows, Linux, and Mac.
• ASP.NET Core using .NET Framework - most dependencies are self-contained, only executes on Windows, will have access to Windows-specific NuGet packages, needs the .NET framework version which is targeted installed on the machine.