.NET vs NestJS: What are the differences?
Developers describe .NET as "A free, cross-platform, open source developer platform for building many different types of applications". .NET is a general purpose development platform. With .NET, you can use multiple languages, editors, and libraries to build native applications for web, mobile, desktop, gaming, and IoT for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and more. 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 and NestJS belong to "Frameworks (Full Stack)" category of the tech stack.
Some of the features offered by .NET are:
- Multiple languages: You can write .NET apps in C#, F#, or Visual Basic.
- Cross Platform: Whether you're working in C#, F#, or Visual Basic, your code will run natively on any compatible OS.
- Consistent API & Libraries: To extend functionality, Microsoft and others maintain a healthy package ecosystem built on .NET Standard.
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.
"Tight integration with visual studio" is the top reason why over 245 developers like .NET, while over 7 developers mention "Powerful but super friendly to work with" as the leading cause for choosing NestJS.
.NET and NestJS are both open source tools. NestJS with 17.4K GitHub stars and 1.22K forks on GitHub appears to be more popular than .NET with 11.1K GitHub stars and 2.4K GitHub forks.
According to the StackShare community, .NET has a broader approval, being mentioned in 1566 company stacks & 239 developers stacks; compared to NestJS, which is listed in 12 company stacks and 13 developer stacks.