ASP.NET Razor web pages on large project?

Question

I'm on the point of starting a medium scale web application and I'm considering developing using ASP.NET Razor syntax Web Pages framework (not MVC). But as I've seen many people consider "Web Pages" to be tailored towards beginners.

I'm developing professional large scale web applications in ASP.NET Web Forms for several years now, but I've always inclined towards clean html/javascript code more than server side controls therefore I find Razor syntax very much appealing. I'm using Visual Studio and not considering web pages for helpers functions or other beginner eye candy features.

Having this in mind what are your opinions on scalability, speed, long term development on this approach?

Answer 1

In terms of performance WebPages is asp.net and gets compliled so performance should be similar to WebForms and MVC.

I'd say that any site that could be built using ClassicASP, PHP or WebForms (without using server controls) can be built just as well using WebPages.

I prefer WebPages over WebForms and MVC for my sites. You get full control over the HTML, don't need to worry about concepts like the page lifecycle and postsbacks unlike WebForms. On the other side you get a lightweight, simple framework where you don't need to use VS.net, solutions files, project files and 3+ files to serve up a single page and you don't need to compile the entire solution before deploying unlike MVC.

But what you use I think depends mostly on your detailed requirements and skillset.

Answer 2

But as I've seen many people consider "Web Pages" to be tailored towards beginners.

Go for the ASP.NET MVC 3 and the Razor view engine then. It provides you with the WebPages syntax coupled with the full power of the MVC pattern built on top of an established platform such as ASP.NET in terms of scalability and long term development. You can't dream for better as far as the Microsoft stack is concerned.