Benefits of asp.net hosting

Thinking about a hosting platform for your website? Well, we agree that it can be a complicated process, particular if you want to integrate data connectivity and dynamic web pages inside your site. With a plethora of technologies competing like PHP, CGI, Perl and ASP.NET making a choice requires a careful study of each of these. But the elephant in the room is definitely .NET. Our goal therefore is to lay bare the pros and cons of using ASP.NET hosting for your website.

So, what is ASP.NET?

Microsoft entered the field of dynamic web sites with Active Server Pages (ASP) almost a decade ago. Depending on your needs, it allowed you to "actively" alter the web pages served to the client. ASP worked, and still does, for basic web design. All you need is a Microsoft based IIS server and the corresponding licenses.

ASP.NET is the next stage of evolution of Microsoft for server driven web pages. Instead of amending ASP to add new functionalities, ASP.NET gives you a programming interface, a complete overhaul that lets developers familiar with VB and other allied Microsoft based development tools to code for the web. Major hosting providers that support .NET technologies also support ASP.NET 2.0 and ASP.NET 3.5.

ASP.NET hosting allows developers who are used to developing in the client-server mould to easily take their skills to the internet. Developers who are familiar with deployment in Java, C++, or VB can use existing components in order to work with ASP.NET web pages and web forms. The latest release, ASP.NET 3.5 hosting significantly enhances this functionality.

In addition, the developer tools and database integration enabled for ASP.NET are designed in a way that is incredibly easy to use. Hard-core programming still being the mainstay, you can also use WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) HTML editors to simplify web page development even more. If you use Microsoft Access as your database, ASP.NET 2.0 hosting and ASP.NET 3.5 hosting reduce your development time further if your database is Microsoft Access.

What are the additional costs for ASP.Net Hosting?

This increased functionality comes at a price (as do all good things). Most reputed hosting firms support ASP.NET hosting, with the additional licensing requirements increasing your costs at a paltry five dollars per month. But if you plan to spend a good deal of time on development and if you have extensive MS-based programming experience, the cost you incur would be insignificant when compared to the time you save.