Top 7 Web Resources built using .NET

.NET is a competent, reliable approach to building web applications, and it covers web, desktop, mobile, gaming, and IoT solutions alike. Plenty of well-known web resources run on it: Microsoft, Outlook, StackOverflow, GoDaddy, Dell, Xero, and W3schools.com are all built using .NET, and every one of them was once a startup. So yes, .NET can be the right platform for a startup venture.

Many corporations have used .NET to turn their software products into well-established businesses. The bigger question for founders is whether it works for startups too, so it is worth looking at both the tradeoffs and the real products built on the framework.

What are the pros and cons of using .NET for a startup?

Before the examples, here are the major .NET startup pros and cons.

Pros

• Scalability. Scaling a startup project is really easy with .NET, and the process is believed to be more efficient than with Ruby, for example. If you expect your product to scale fast, .NET is your best way to go.
• Ease of use, advanced functionality, and security. ASP.NET MVC ensures safe development and makes it easier to spot mistakes and solve common problems without hassle.
• Huge choice and space for creation. You can use multiple languages, different editors, and many libraries when you develop with .NET, so many different types of applications can be built with it.
• One consistent API. A base set of APIs, .NET Standard, is common to all .NET implementations, and adopting other APIs specific to the operating systems it runs on is also possible.
• Entity Framework. It drops the need for most of the data-access code developers must write regularly.
• Microsoft developer tools and startup programs. You can take advantage of the Bizspark program, which lets you launch your business without worrying about license fees and the like for your first years, and Visual Studio Team Services allows you to have up to 5 free members.

Cons

• No open standards. The lack of open standards significantly slows down the whole software development process.
• Costly licensing and no open-source resources. You need to pay for the licenses to develop with this technology.
• Platform lock-in. .NET can make you too dependent on the platform.

Despite these disadvantages, some technology companies still choose .NET for startup development because they feel truly comfortable with .NET and other Microsoft technologies. That said, today you can hardly find anything written in one pure programming language, and only in combination with the latest technologies can you stay competitive.

Which web resources are built using .NET?

These are the famous technology companies whose solutions were built using .NET.

Web resource	Why it makes the list
Microsoft	Used its own best technologies and developer tools to build its website. Everything is clear and consistent, and the site is responsive and runs smoothly.
Outlook	Also a creation of Microsoft, so it relies on the same best in-built technologies. A powerful, feature-packed, and secure email app.
StackOverflow	One of the best Q&A platforms for computer-related specialists trying to solve technical problems. It began as a blog and quickly turned into a huge business, and it is a useful learning platform where engineers read others’ views, comment, and find the right solution for their case. Newcomers are expected to gain a reputation to become full-right members of the community.
GoDaddy	A US-based, industry-leading online domain registrar and hosting company that runs a cloud platform dedicated to small, independent ventures. It boasts more than 17 million customers and 6,000+ employees around the globe, plus a wide internet community. Robust, intuitive, and secure.
Dell	A well-known portal of the famous PC provider, now more than just a PC manufacturer, with dozens of software solutions including cloud computing. The site is written by means of the .NET framework and comes with a variety of features.
Xero	One of the leading accounting software solutions to manage your business on the go, tailored to small and medium-sized businesses. Powerful, consistent, and reliable.
W3schools.com	A popular open-source programming platform that hosts thousands of code examples covering HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL server, and other common programmer issues. Use it to learn, test, and implement things in a simple, efficient way. Many IT people consider it one of the best web services to gain IT expertise.

To sum up, all of these companies used feature-rich, thoroughly battle-tested .NET technology and became a success, yet they were all startups once too. So it can be said without exaggeration that the .NET framework can become the right platform for a startup venture. If you want to build a product using .NET MVC, unicrew is a great IT partner: our engineering team has extensive expertise in .NET application development and is always at your disposal.

P.S. There are dozens of other famous companies that use Microsoft technologies, .NET in particular, since it comes with a variety of options and leaves space for further development. These are only a small part of them. Can you name any other .NET-powered product that is well worth mentioning here? Please share your thoughts below.