.NET Support Policy

.NET Core

.NET Core refers to several technologies including .NET Core, ASP.NET Core, Entity Framework Core, and more. .NET Core provides Long Term Support (LTS) releases that get three years of free support and release every other year. You choose when to update your application with a release. Patches to LTS releases are compatible which eliminates risk adversely affecting applications.

View the .NET Core support policy

.NET Framework

.NET Framework covers a broad set of Windows technologies including the .NET Framework Base Class Libraries, ASP.NET Web Forms, WCF, and more. Support for .NET Framework follows the Lifecycle Policy of the parent Windows operating system. The .NET Framework is updated machine-wide automatically by Windows Update. .NET Framework 4.8 is the latest version of .NET Framework and will continue to be distributed with future releases of Windows. As long as it is installed on a supported version of Windows, .NET Framework 4.8 will continue to also be supported.

View the .NET Framework support policy

ASP.NET

ASP.NET is a web development framework for .NET and includes components that ship in .NET Framework, .NET Core, and as external packages.

View the ASP.NET support policy

Xamarin

Xamarin offers a set of tools and technologies for creating native iOS, Android and Windows applications.

View the Xamarin support policy

FAQ

How is .NET Core supported?

Unlike .NET Framework on Windows, .NET Core can be installed side-by-side with each application for any OS. This means updates are determined by you. Customers can choose Long Term Support (LTS) releases or Current releases. LTS releases will receive only critical fixes throughout their lifecycle. Current releases will receive these same fixes and will also be updated with compatible innovations and features. For details, see the .NET Core support policy page.

What is the release schedule for .NET Core? When is the next Long Term Support (LTS) release available?

.NET Core 2.1 and .NET Core 3.1 are the current LTS releases made available on August 2018 and December 2019, respectively. After .NET Core 3.1, the product will be renamed to .NET and LTS releases will be made available every other year in November. So, the next LTS release will be .NET 6, which will ship in November 2021. This will help customers plan upgrades more effectively. For policy details, see the .NET Core support policy page.

What happens when a fix is made to .NET Core by Microsoft, but the application isn't on a supported LTS version anymore?

Not all fixes require applications to be patched. In the case of security fixes that an application may require, customers should keep up with LTS releases. Updates to .NET Core versions will generally be compatible with each other. Patches to LTS releases are compatible which eliminates risk adversely affecting applications.

Which .NET Core platform open source projects are supported by Microsoft?

Microsoft supports official releases of the following open source projects on github.com that make up the .NET Core platform: dotnet/runtime, dotnet/roslyn, dotnet/wpf, dotnet/winforms, dotnet/aspnetcore, dotnet/efcore, dotnet/ef6 and supporting repos and components. Additionally many NuGet packages are also supported. See the licensing terms on those components and repos. For a list of the main .NET Core repos, see .NET repositories.

Can customers continue using the .NET Framework and get support?

Yes. Many products both within and outside Microsoft rely on .NET Framework. The .NET Framework is a component of Windows and receives the same support as Windows version which it ships with or on which it is installed. .NET Framework 4.8 is the latest version of .NET Framework and will continue to be distributed with future releases of Windows. As long as it is installed on a supported version of Windows, .NET Framework 4.8 will continue to also be supported. See the .NET Framework support policy for details.

Is .NET Core supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?

Red Hat supports .NET Core on RHEL. Red Hat builds .NET Core from source and makes it available in the Red Hat Software Collections. Red Hat and Microsoft collaborate to ensure that everything works well on RHEL.