.netrestwcf-web-apiopenrasta

What is better for REST API? WCF Web API (Preview 4) or OpenRasta or something else?

I see in this question that WCF Web API is still in preview and I've just started looking at OpenRasta.

Though OpenRasta looks more mature than WCF Web API, I'm still a bit confused. Or please suggest if there is any other better framework for building REST API on .NET stack.

Also, I observed that in OpenRasta aspx view containing HTML can also be rendered as a response (in ASP.NET MVC fashion) apart from other JSON/XML representations. So, is it that I can even (or it is recommended that I should) build a web application which will also serve as a service layer to 3rd party client developer using it? Or it is just for use as a service layer?

Solution

  • OpenRasta is much more mature than WCF Web API. OpenRasta is an opinionated REST framework. WCF Web API currently has no opinions on how you should do REST, it only has opinions on how you use HTTP.

    If you share OpenRasta's opinions on how to do REST then it will do a great job for you. WCF Web API is still a preview. It has great potential but there is still a long way to go.