.NET Core vs NestJS: What are the differences?
Developers describe .NET Core as "An Open Source, General-Purpose Development Platform Maintained by Microsoft and the .NET Community". Cross-platform (supporting Windows, macOS, and Linux) and can be used to build device, cloud, and IoT applications. On the other hand, NestJS is detailed as "A progressive Node.js framework for building efficient and scalable server-side applications by @kammysliwiec". Nest is a framework for building efficient, scalable Node.js server-side applications. It uses progressive JavaScript, is built with TypeScript (preserves compatibility with pure JavaScript) and combines elements of OOP (Object Oriented Programming), FP (Functional Programming), and FRP (Functional Reactive Programming)
Under the hood, Nest makes use of Express, but also, provides compatibility with a wide range of other libraries, like e.g. Fastify, allowing for easy use of the myriad third-party plugins which are available..
.NET Core and NestJS can be categorized as "Frameworks (Full Stack)" tools.
Some of the features offered by .NET Core are:
- Cross-platform
- Consistent across architectures
- Command-line tools
On the other hand, NestJS provides the following key features:
- Extensible - Gives you true flexibility by allowing use of any other libraries thanks to modular architecture.
- Versatile - An adaptable ecosystem that is a fully-fledged backbone for all kinds of server-side applications.
- Progressive - Takes advantage of latest JavaScript features, bringing design patterns and mature solutions to node.js world.
"Great performance" is the top reason why over 2 developers like .NET Core, while over 7 developers mention "Powerful but super friendly to work with" as the leading cause for choosing NestJS.
.NET Core and NestJS are both open source tools. It seems that NestJS with 17.5K GitHub stars and 1.22K forks on GitHub has more adoption than .NET Core with 11.2K GitHub stars and 2.41K GitHub forks.
Catchpoint Systems, Bluebeam Software, and Kaggle are some of the popular companies that use .NET Core, whereas NestJS is used by Sofit Software, Quero Education, and YABAWT. .NET Core has a broader approval, being mentioned in 54 company stacks & 71 developers stacks; compared to NestJS, which is listed in 12 company stacks and 13 developer stacks.