Difference Between MVC And Web Forms

Introduction

In this tip, I will explain what MVC is and how it is different from web forms. I will start a series of learning MVC soon.

What is MVC?

Let's start first with what is MVC

In a general sense, MVC stands for Model-View-Controller. It is a software design pattern. It is different from the MVVM pattern.

MVC is a pattern based on the separation of concerns, which means that View, Model, and Controller are independent of each other. As a result, working in teams, maintenance, and testing of the application become simpler and easier.

So, now what is this Model, View, and Controller?

Model

The Model in MVC is a set of classes or projects that describe your business logic. It represents all the business logic, like manipulating data for your business/application, and data access operations like how you connect with the database and get the data. In MVC, the Model directly communicates with the Controller.

View

The Views in MVC are pages that we display to users, i.e., the UI part which may consist of HTML, CSS, jQuery, JavaScript, etc. The view part is completely responsible for displaying data. It takes data from the Controller and also sends back data to the Controller. It does not communicate directly with the Model.

Controller

The Controller in MVC is the base of MVC architecture. Every request comes first to the Controller then the Controller requests the required information from the Model and then it sends that information (data) to View in various formats. It works as a communicator and validator between View and Model.

ASP.NET MVC

So, now what is ASP.NET MVC, and how it is different from ASP.NET Web Forms?

ASP.NET MVC is based on the MVC design pattern which provides us the facility to create an application quickly, easily, and with full control. It is not a substitute for Web Forms but it is a new technology that keeps you updated with new web technologies like HTML5, Ajax, Web API, SignalR, OAuth, Identity 2.0, etc. You don't need to learn these to learn MVC but you can use them inside MVC.

So, let's compare the features of MVC and Web Form.

ASP.NET MVC vs Web Forms
 

ASP.NET MVC	Web Forms
MVC focuses on the separation of concern, i.e., there is no fixed code behind the page for every view. A view can be called from multiple actions.	Web form based on functions and page behind code, i.e., there is code behind the page for each view. You have to write code in that class related to this view only.
The first request comes to the controller and action, and then the view gets called.	The first request comes to Page (View) then it will go to the code behind the page.
MVC provides HTML Helpers to create form controls. This is optional. You can use simple HTML controls also.	For everything in web forms, you have server control.
There is no ViewState for state management in View.	ViewState is used to maintain a state of form in view. This also makes the page heavy.
Good for SEO-friendly URLs. No need to map to existing physical files.	Earlier, this feature was not available in Webforms but now it is available. Although it is not that easy it is optional.
We create partial views for reusable views.	We create user controls for reusable view or control.
It is very easy to use jQuery and JavaScript. Using CSS is also easy.	It is a little difficult to use jQuery and JavaScript in web forms. It provides themes and it is difficult to manage the design of server controls.
Maintaining the ID of form controls is easy and you can fully control them when working with JQuery.	It is difficult to manage the ID of server controls, you don't know the object ID of server controls most of the time. Especially working with user controls.

There are many other differences related to architecture because MVC gets created from scratch. Although it is inherited from the same library System. Web, it has all the functionalities that we have earlier.

Conclusion

If you are developing a new application, then definitely go with ASP.NET MVC because it will give you all the flexibility you need for current and future web development. It supports very well with EntityFrameWork, WebAPI, OAuth, SignalR, Jquery, Ajax, AngularJs, CSS, and other latest technologies.