Blazor is one of .NET’s most interesting developments in recent years. If your team works with this technology, it’s undoubtedly something to take into account: It will save time and simplify processes.
In this article, we’ll provide an introduction, review, and some insights on the potential of this new framework.
What is Blazor?
Blazor is a framework developed by Microsoft, designed to build web apps in .NET’s environment. It works by combining C# (.NET’s main language) with CSS and HTML.
Fundamentally, it allows developers to write both the client-side and the server-side of web applications in C#, which was impossible before its apparition; they had to be rendered on a JS framework such as Angular or React. Now Blazor, through WebAssembly, allows running the application code directly on the browser.
What was it made for?
As we said, before Blazor’s development, the client-oriented part of a web app project was to be made with a JS framework. This implied a different language and technology for the project.
The main aim for Blazor was to enable .NET developers to build their business logic and all the important code in pure C#. In this sense, adding Blazor was a big improvement for .NET developers as, even though it isn’t entirely JavaScript-free (it has the function of communicating with the HTML DOMg), it boldly reduces JavaScript to a minor implementation detail.
What are Blazor’s benefits?
Blazor has all the benefits that come along with .NET’s environment, especially for businesses. It’s a very complete framework, with all that’s needed to build web applications. If your team is already working with C#, the possibility of handling both back-end and front-end with a single stack will have a huge impact on performance.
Is Blazor better than React or Angular?
This is a truly frequent question that comes up a lot. To be fair, we should take into account some of the advantages of JS frameworks:
- They have a bigger community
- They’ve been in the market for a longer period
- They are well-performing
- They prioritize cross-platform
However, the comparison isn’t completely fair. While React and Angular have several years in the market and Blazor had its origin in 2018, Microsoft has a clear roadmap and has been making great progress since it came out.
It’s true, there’s a performance issue that won’t be easily solved, related to the startup tax, and first-time-launch tax. It isn’t really that big, though. In comparison, to stop being in the need of JS is really priceless for C# developers: they remain in the same language for every task.
What’s the perspective for Blazor’s future?
From our perspective, Microsoft is going in the right direction at the moment with Blazor. The framework is getting better and better over time, and the benefit for .NET developers and companies working with their software environment is enormous.
Is it already at the same point as its JS equivalents? Of course not, but it is an interesting bet from the beginning that will help many businesses simplify their processes and improve their software engineering teams’ performance.
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