Is mono a viable alternative to asp.net?

Question

I am researching for a platform I'd be using for my project. Part of it is a very simple .NET web site. I wanted to get an Amazon EC2 hosting for it, and I do see that lunux host will cost me twice less than windows. I also feel that with Linux I would be able to get more out of the hardware than with Windows. So, my thought is that if I make my web site work under Mono, I would be able to host it cheaper. My questions now are:

• Is Mono stable enough platform to host web sites? By stable I mean: bugs, crashes, security issues. In other words, is it good enough to host a production web site?

• What web server would be appropriate for my web? I always hear "apache", but it's a big bloated platform, designed for heavy duty webs. My model would be - one EC2 host = one web site. Isn't it an overkill? Are there other alternatives, which are light and stable?

• Is there any example of a successful web site running on Mono? What exactly is their setup?

Answer 1

Your first question is invalid IMHO. Requirements on production usage are more than technologies in use, as it also involves support contracts with service providers (Amazon), framework vendor (Xamarin), application vendor (your development team or a third party).

Even if you choose .NET/IIS/Windows, you would face the same situation.

Mono supports FastCGI, so Apache is only one of your web server options. http://www.mono-project.com/FastCGI

Show cases for Mono can be found from following links,

http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2010/Jun-16-1.html

http://mono.1490590.n4.nabble.com/Showcase-of-mono-projects-td2300715.html

There are more, as published at http://mono-project.com/Companies_Using_Mono

I suggest you talk to Xamarin if you want to do more inquiries too,

http://support.xamarin.com/