Frequently Asked
Questions

What is Blazor?

Blazor is a new framework by the Microsoft ASP.NET team that introduces a next generation component model that allows developers to write Single Page Applications (SPA) without JavaScript.

The framework is built on .NET that runs in the browser via WebAssembly, and is based on HTML, CSS and other standard web technologies. If Blazor UI components sounds new to you that’s because it has only been in development since 2018, initially as an experimental project.

The Blazor framework targets the Mono WebAssembly runtime (the .NET runtime compiled to Web Assembly (WASM)), thus allowing .NET to run on the client’s browser inspiring the name “Blazor” (Browser + Razor). In this configuration the application’s resources including .dll files are delivered to the client and executed on the Mono WebAssembly runtime. This is what makes it possible to make the transition from JavaScript to C#.

Blazor has two separate execution modes with the biggest difference being the way the application is deployed. The first one is called Client-side and basically does what the previous paragraph described – this is the new and innovative concept for C# in the browser, it’s what Blazor is all about. Blazor’s other execution mode is called Server-side Blazor and in this configuration, Blazor operates more closely to how previous ASP.NET technologies worked. This mode is great for compatibility with existing applications.

For more information about Blazor check out our blog.

For more information on the differences between Blazor’s 2 execution modes, check out another of our FAQ entries.