Microsoft first released ASP.NET, its popular web application framework, way back in 2002. Despite several advanced similar frameworks have sprung up since then, like Django, Ruby on Rails, Laravel, and Symfony, still ASP.NET has somehow managed to remain popular even in present times.
The only reason is that this server-side, open-source framework is quite good at what it was created for - build scalable, dynamic web pages and web applications in less time.
Importance of ASP.NET Performance
As the world has moved from desktop applications to web applications, the ease of sharing content on a global level has drastically increased. But at the same time, it has raised the bar for desired performance.
Even fractionally slow web pages draw the ire of the visitors and isn’t acceptable anymore. This brings in a major challenge to optimize the performance of your web applications to make them fast and responsive.
The first step of any optimization is monitoring the performance and collecting data, that can be analyzed to improve the performance. There are several tools available for gauging the performance of ASP.NET applications which are categorized as Application Process Management (APM) tools, code profilers, lightweight profilers and more.
Let’s look at some of the most important tools that you should use to monitor ASP.NET performance.
Tools to Measure ASP.NET Performance
1. AppDynamics
AppDynamics boasts of a platform that is highly scalable, combined with the ability to install quickly to set it apart from most of the competition out there among APM tools.
It radically empowers the development team as well as the operations team to rapidly build and efficiently manage applications built in the ASP.NET framework, with its well-round package.
AppDynamics provides a great Business transaction dashboard, Transaction Snapshots, and lets you visualize the ASP .NET application flow. Collecting performance metrics has never been easier.
2. OpServer - Open Source
OpServer is an Infrastructure monitoring tool developed by the Stack Exchange team, which runs the popular Stack Overflow too. While an APM collects metrics at the application level, OpServer collects data at the host level, i.e. both the hardware and software level.
OpServer lets you monitor servers, switches, SQL clusters, Exception Logs, HAproxy, PagerDuty, CloudFlare DNS and many more. It has a user-friendly UI that provides a quick overview as well as allows you to zoom in for deeper details.
3. MiniProfiler - Open Source
MiniProfiler is a lightweight profiler that allows you to monitor the higher level metrics in real time while you are browsing the web applications or pages. It is a handy tool for all developers to use while their application is in the development phase, testing phase or any other environment.
For example, while you are writing a code you can get a real-time feedback on the response time through MiniProfiler. This way you can quickly identify any slow response time issues that may be present in your code.
4. Redgate ANTS
ANTS is a resourceful tool that lets you quickly identify any performance bottlenecks in the data access layer. It is compatible with almost all the popular database management systems like Oracle, MySQL, Postgre SQL and many more.
Deploy it to save copious amounts of time and effort that is wasted in detecting and debugging codes. Thanks to the actionable performance data it provides. Moreover, it is a great profiler too, so you can actually use it for monitoring the performance of your .NET code too.
5. JetBrains dotMemory
Simply put, dotMemory lets developers easily monitor how much memory is being used up in real time through a clean timeline view as well as collect data through instant snapshots at specific timeframes.
Moreover, you can auto-detect common issues pertaining to memory usage through a one-click guidance.
Conclusion
Measuring data and analyzing it to optimize the performance of your ASP.NET applications is a necessary yet challenging activity. But thanks to some good tools out there, you can save loads of time and effort while you are at it.
Share more such suggestions in the comments.
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