ASP supports many different development models:

The ASP Technology

ASP and ASP.NET are server side technologies.

Both technologies enable computer code to be executed by an Internet server.

When a browser requests an ASP or ASP.NET file, the ASP engine reads the file, executes any code in the file, and returns the result to the browser.

Classic ASP – Active Server Pages

ASP (aka Classic ASP) was introduced in 1998 as Microsoft’s first server side scripting language.

Classic ASP pages have the file extension .asp and are normally written in VBScript.

Visit our Classic ASP Tutorial »

ASP.NET

ASP.NET was released in 2002 as a successor to Classic ASP.

ASP.NET pages have the extension .aspx and are normally written in C# (C sharp).

ASP.NET 4.6 is the latest official version of ASP.NET.

ASP.NET 5 was expected to be an important redesign of ASP.NET.

However, the development of ASP.NET 5 was stopped in favor of ASP.NET Core.

ASP.NET Web Pages

ASP.NET Web Pages is an SPA application model (Single Page Application).

The SPA model is quite similar to PHP and Classic ASP.

ASP.NET Web Pages is being merged into the new ASP.NET Core.

Visit our Web Pages Tutorial »

ASP.NET MVC

ASP.NET MVC is an MVC application model (Model-View-Controller).

ASP.NET MVC is being merged into the new ASP.NET Core.

ASP.NET MVC is not covered in this tutorial.

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ASP.NET Web API

ASP.NET API is an API application model (Application Programming Interface).

ASP.NET API is being merged into the new ASP.NET Core.

ASP.NET API is not covered in this tutorial.

ASP.NET Web Forms

ASP.NET Web Forms is an event driven application model.

ASP.NET Web Forms is not a part of the new ASP.NET Core.

ASP.NET Web Forms is not covered in this tutorial.

ASP.NET Core

ASP.NET Core was released in 2016.

ASP.NET Core merges ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Web API, and ASP.NET Web Pages into one application framework.

ASP.NET Core is not covered in this tutorial.