.NET implementations

A .NET app is developed for one or more implementations. Each implementation of .NET includes the following components:1

  • One or more runtimes, for example, .NET Framework CLR and .NET 10 CLR.
  • A class library, for example, .NET Framework Base Class Library and .NET 10 Base Class Library.
  • Optionally, one or more application frameworks, for example, ASP.NET, Windows Forms, and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) are included in .NET Framework and .NET 5+.
  • Optionally, development tools. Some development tools are shared among multiple implementations.

There are three main .NET implementations:

Footnotes

  1. .NET implementations - .NET | Microsoft Learn ↩