🎯 Introduction
Both .NET Core and Mono are runtimes in the .NET ecosystem, but they serve different purposes.
For interviews or system design, it’s important to know when to use which.
👉 Full detailed article:
https://fullstackprep.dev/articles/webd/netcore/difference-dotnet-core-vs-mono
🔗 Explore more .NET interview prep & guides:
https://fullstackprep.dev
👶 Fresher Level: Analogy
Think of .NET Core and Mono as two different vehicles:
.NET Core → A modern electric car, designed for highways, long drives, and cross-country trips (cross-platform, high performance, cloud-ready).
Mono → A compact scooter, designed for short city rides and portability (lightweight, mobile-focused, good for small devices).
Both take you from point A to B, but their design goals are different.
👨💻 Experienced Level: Practical Differences
.NET Core
Cross-platform (Windows, Linux, macOS)
Optimized for cloud, web, microservices
High-performance server runtime
CLI & modular packages
Mono
Lightweight, portable runtime
Initially built for Linux (before CoreCLR existed)
Powers Xamarin → mobile app development
Smaller footprint, useful in IoT devices
👉 Detailed comparison:
https://fullstackprep.dev/articles/webd/netcore/difference-dotnet-core-vs-mono
🏗️ Architect Level: Enterprise Perspective
For architects:
.NET Core → Best suited for enterprise applications, web APIs, cloud-native services.
Mono → Best for mobile apps (Xamarin), gaming (Unity), and embedded systems.
Convergence → With .NET 5+, .NET Core and Mono runtimes are unified into a single platform. This reduces fragmentation and simplifies architecture decisions.
This means architects can now plan solutions without worrying about runtime silos.
🚀 Closing Thoughts
.NET Core is the engine for enterprise and cloud apps.
Mono is the runtime for mobile and lightweight environments.
With modern .NET, both have merged, ensuring one runtime to rule them all.
👉 Read the full deep dive here:
https://fullstackprep.dev/articles/webd/netcore/difference-dotnet-core-vs-mono
🔗 Explore more .NET topics & interview prep:
https://fullstackprep.dev
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