ASP.NET Core Module (ANCM) lets you run ASP.NET Core applications behind IIS and it works only with Kestrel; it isn’t compatible with WebListener. ANCM is a native IIS module that hooks into the IIS pipeline and redirects traffic to the backend ASP.NET Core application. ASP.NET Core applications run in a process separate from the IIS worker process, ANCM also does process management. ANCM starts the process for the ASP.NET Core application when the first request comes in and restarts it when it crashes. In short, it sits in IIS and routes the request for ASP.NET Core application to Kestral.