Is it possible to use ASP.NET Core Web API without IIS in a Windows Desktop application?

.net iis asp.net-core desktop-application kestrel-http-server
Uwe Keim picture Uwe Keim · Aug 11, 2016 · Viewed 7.1k times · Source

Currently I'm trying to find a way to build a desktop app that hosts a browser window and uses JavaScript to communicate with a local ASP.NET Core Web API as the "backend":

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All my searches lead to the suggestion that I should use IIS Express web server.

Unfortunately, IIS Express does not fit into my scenario, since I want the whole application to be installable and runnable by non-admin users.

Since IIS Express requires administrative permissions to install, this is out-of-scope to me.

My question:

Is there another way beside using IIS Express to run an ASP.NET Core Web API project?

I've read about the Kestrel server which seems to be what I am looking for, but I still don't get the big picture here.

Edit 1:

I've asked a somewhat releated question over at SE Software Recommendations.

Answer

DavidG picture DavidG · Aug 12, 2016

I'm sure Kestrel will work well for you in this situation. It's a cross platform web server which is based on libuv which means it is super fast. The official benchmarks show just how much it outperforms standard IIS.

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