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Asked: 2026-05-11T06:17:53+00:00

I’m doing some maintenance on a classic ASP application for my client, and as

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I’m doing some maintenance on a classic ASP application for my client, and as I’m looking through the ASP, the following question comes to mind – would it be easier to convert a classic ASP app to ASP.NET MVC or ASP.NET WebForms?

In many ways, it appears that at least the HTML of ASP might be easier to convert to MVC than it would be to rip out the HTML chunks and turn them into ASP.NET controls, repeaters, datagrids, etc. Plus having to add in handling and logic for ViewState, etc. might be added work.

I don’t think my client will be requesting any upgrade like this, so this is just theoretical.

Let’s assume that this ASP code is written very well (which isn’t always true of course) so really the question is, will a best-case-well-designed ASP site migrate better to MVC than WebForms?

(Note that I’m very new to ASP.NET MVC, so I might be missing something crucial here).

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  1. It depends a lot on how the classic asp app is structured.

    The server tag mixed in with HTML is similar to asp.net mvc but MVC is not as messy (or not supposed to be). You might be able to move the classic asp presentation code to a MVC view easier than to a web form. Also classic asp apps were usually developed with the statelessness of the web in mind. There probably is not anything in your classic asp that matches postabacks or viewstate. Classic ASP also uses normal html elements as opposed to asp.net webform controls. In these respects it matches MVC a lot closer than webforms.

    If you do not know asp.net webforms or asp.net mvc I would say MVC is the way to go.

    If you know webforms very well and don’t know much about MVC I would say webforms is the way to go.

    But, if your client for some reason does want a redevelopment of the site I would say go with MVC. It’s always nice to have a client pay for part of your experience development as long as you can deliver.

    On another note I’m always taken aback when I come across a client who wants me to do work on their classic asp site. In every single case the site is a mess. The worse part is that they are usually filled with huge security holes.

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