Yet another question on freelancing as ASP.NET developer

Question

In terms of speed, quality and efficiency which framework makes more sense for freelance job offers: ASP.NET MVC or ASP.NET (Webforms) + Telerik ASP.NET AJAX?

Assuming one has no experience with either framework, but wants to learn either ASP.NET or ASP.NET MVC just for that given scenario - doing freelance work.

Answer 1

In many cases the client will dictate the platform they want. Learn them all.

Well except "Telerik ASP.NET AJAX" seems like you are commingling several things there.

Answer 2

I think this is going to come down to personal preference. One could argue that you'll be more productive with ASP.NET Web Forms. But that's only to a point. There are numerous cases when working on complex ASP.NET sites where Web Forms will haunt you with details that are so time consuming that you'll feel like giving up (like this one).

I find that with MVC I'm rolling my own solutions to problems more often. But at the same time I'm not as deep into the framework of controls and whatnot. The positive to take away from that is I understand what's going on and I have full control over just about everything.

I talk about this a little more in my article here: http://swortham.blogspot.com/2009/10/when-to-use-aspnet-web-forms-and-when.html

Answer 3

It has been my experience that learning ASP.NET webforms first in tandem with using Telerik's controls was a good way to get started in ASP.NET development. Ultimately, JohnFx hit the nail on the head - the client will generally dictate the platform. One item to consider: ASP.NET MVC is optimized to run on IIS7 and above. It will run on previous versions, but some adjustments need to be made for the routing to work properly.

Hope this helps, Sid

Answer 4

ASP.NET MVC2

Web Forms solved a problem several years ago but unfortunately things have changed significantly enough now:

• Introduction of agile development methodologies
• popularity of unit tests
• adherence to web standards*
• bloating of your pages (viewstate) in an attempt to make them stateful

These things have left Web Forms as slightly dated.

ASP.NET MVC was a blatant reaction to these changes and the competetion from Ruby on Rails. With MVC you will now find:

• Making your work unit testable easier
• The statelessness refreshing and lightweight
• The level of control increased
• Speed of development hugely improve

I'd suggest using it in conjunction with the Entity Framework 4 as well if you are looking for speed of development too.

If you need to learn one from scratch: learn ASP.NET MVC 2

*web standards have improved with ASP.NET 4