IIS Express or Owin self host (as a service)

Question

What are the advantages/disadvantages of these two approaches.

Some characteristics:

• Will be a server REST.
• The project at first will have few requests
• Local server (not cloud)

Answer 1

It’s always hard to say anything about this kind of situation because every case is a case and only knowing all details is that you can make a reasonable decision. And it’s complicated because in general neither who is making the project knows all the details.

The self-host is interesting in cases you have described. You lose a few things by not using IIS, but it is lighter and simpler to administer. And what you lose probably won’t be necessary in this more controlled scenario.

For all that has been described and for what I have seen of your intention I would think to go from .NET Core using OWIN. Depending on the project cycle I would already try using ASP.NET vNext (which then went on to be called ASP.NET Core, and lost Core in the name) that is the new version of the Web API. It is not yet ready but is well in advance.

If a day needs to change to IIS, it is quite simple. At least from a programming point of view it should be almost transparent.

The IIS Express is not meant for production use, so it can even be used, but it’s one less reason to use it.

Of course you will have to learn the full workings of the OWIN/Katana. I think it’s worth knowing this in the long run, but if you’re in a hurry you better use what you already know and don’t need to create specific codes. Then, in this case, I would go from normal IIS.