Petr Volobuev | Technology RadarPetr Volobuev | Technology Radar

Kestrel

.net
Using

We're moving projects to .net core for the sake of multiplatform support.

Assessing

Kestrel is the built-in web server for the ASP.NET Core platform, developed by Microsoft. It's included by default in ASP.NET Core project templates and recommended for most scenarios.

Features

  • Cross-platform. Runs on Windows, Linux and macOS.
  • High performance. Optimized for handling a large number of concurrent connections.
  • Lightweight. Suitable for resource-constrained environments (containers, edge devices).
  • Security. Supports HTTPS, protected against typical web server vulnerabilities.
  • Support for modern protocols:
    • HTTP/1.1;
    • HTTP/2 (except macOS — support is planned for future versions);
    • HTTP/3;
    • WebSockets.
  • Integration with ASP.NET Core. Compatible with middleware, dependency injection, the configuration system and other platform components.
  • Deployment flexibility. Can run:
    • standalone (in its own process);
    • behind a reverse proxy (IIS, Nginx, Apache).