.NET Remoting versus Web Services

.NET Remoting and Web Services are two common ways to write distributed .NET applications. Here are some comparisons between the two.

 

 

The following Table summarizes the advantages and disadvantages .NET Remoting versus Web Services.

 

	. NET Remoting	Web Services
Protocol Support	TCP, HTTP	HTTP
Data Format	Binary, SOAP	SOAP, Binary with some extra work
Data Types	Rich data types	Limited to data types support.
Platform Interoperability	Client platform dependent. . NET applications only	Platform independent
Reliability	Requires plumbing if not hosted on IIS.	Highly reliable. Hosted on IIS.
Development	Complex.	Very easy
Ease of use	Complex	Very easy
Audiences	Limited. Registered network and specified port only.	Unlimited. World Wide Web.
Data Transfer	Faster	Slower
Deployment and Maintenance	Complex. Need to deploy assemblies, configuration files, and object registrations on the client and add reference to get the meta data of the assembly. Any change in the code need to redeploy these files on the clients.	Easy. Just add Web reference to the project using URL. No deployment required.
Security	More secure. Available through specified port only.	Less secure if proper precautions are not being taken.
Scalability	Less scalable. Only through SingleCall method but it may get costly if too many clients are calling the object. A new object will be created for each new client request.	Highly scalable.
Host Application	Windows Forms, Console application, Windows Services, and ASP.NET application hosted by IIS and ASP.NET.	Web service only.
Application Dependency	Dependent. Needs a host application on the server to start the process.	Independent. Hosted by IIS and ASP.NET.