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asp.netvisual-studioiiscassini

What are the technical differences between Cassini and IIS for a development environment?

I'm trying to understand the technical differences between using the Visual Studio built-in web server (Cassini) and IIS in a development environment. My specific setup is:

  • Windows XP
  • IIS 5
  • Multiple projects, each with its own virtual directory in IIS

I've observed that Cassini allows me to edit the source while debugging, which IIS does not seem to support.

Beyond this, are there other technical advantages or disadvantages of using Cassini instead of IIS for web development?

Solution

  • The built-in web server for Visual Studio is called Cassini and here are a few of its limitations...

    • It can host only one ASP.NET application per port.
    • It does not support HTTPS.
    • It does not support authentication.
    • It responds only to localhost requests.
    • It is slow startup compared to IIS