Difference between MVC and Web API
Aryan Mehta1 min read
MVC (Basic Definition)
MVC is used for building web apps with UI views. It follows MVC pattern which help in separation of concerns
Web API (Basic Definition)
Web API is used to build the Restful API Services that allow communication between applications.
Key Differences Between Web API and MVC
| Feature | MVC (Model-View-Controller) | Web API (REST API) |
| Purpose | Web applications with UI | RESTful APIs for data communication |
| Returns | HTML, Razor Views | JSON, XML (structured data) |
| Controller Type | Controller | ControllerBase |
| Usage | Websites, web apps | Mobile apps, frontend apps, IoT |
| State Management | Stateful (session handling) | Stateless (RESTful) |
| Performance | Slightly slower (HTML rendering) | Faster (JSON responses) |
| Routing | routes.MapRoute() | routes.MapHttpRoute() |
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