The main differences between ASP.NET Web Form and ASP.NET MVC are given below:
| Razor View Engine | Webform View Engine |
|---|---|
| Razor Engine is an advanced view engine that was introduced with MVC3. This is not a new language but it is a new markup syntax. | Web Form Engine is the default view engine for the Asp.net MVC that is included with Asp.net MVC from the beginning. |
| Razor Engine is an advanced view engine that was introduced with MVC3. This is not a new language but it is a new markup syntax. | Web Form Engine is the default view engine for the Asp.net MVC that is included with Asp.net MVC from the beginning. |
| The namespace for Razor Engine is System.Web.Razor. | The namespace for Webform Engine is System.Web.Mvc.WebFormViewEngine. |
| The file extensions used with Razor Engine are different from Web Form Engine. It has .cshtml (Razor with C#) or .vbhtml (Razor with VB) extension for views, partial views, editor templates and for layout pages. | The file extensions used with Web Form Engine are also like Asp.net Web Forms. It has .aspx extension for views, .ascx extension for partial views & editor templates and .master extension for layout/master pages. |
| Razor has new and advance syntax that are compact, expressive and reduces typing. | Web Form Engine has the same syntax like Asp.net Web Forms uses for .aspx pages. |
| Razor syntax are easy to learn and much clean than Web Form syntax. Razor uses @ symbol to make the code like as: @Html.ActionLink(“SignUp”, “SignUp”) | Web Form syntax are borrowed from Asp.net Web Forms syntax that are mixed with html and sometimes make a view messy. Webform uses <% and %> delimiters to make the code like as: <%: Html.ActionLink(“SignUp”, “SignUp”) %> |
| By default, Razor Engine prevents XSS attacks (Cross-Site Scripting Attacks) means it encodes the script or html tags like <, > before rendering to view. | Web Form Engine does not prevent XSS attacks means any script saved in the database will be fired while rendering the page |
| Razor Engine is little bit slow as compared to Webform Engine. | Web Form Engine is faster than Razor Engine. |
| Razor Engine, doesn’t support design mode in visual studio means you cannot see your page look and feel. | Web Form engine support design mode in visual studio means you can see your page look and feel without running the application. |
| Razor Engine support TDD (Test Driven Development) since it is not depend on System.Web.UI.Page class. | Web Form Engine doesn’t support TDD (Test Driven Development) since it depend on System.Web.UI.Page class which makes the testing complex. |