Over the past few weeks, I’ve made it a point to stay more up to date with the latest developments in the .NET ecosystem. As someone who’s been working with .NET for years, I realized that keeping pace with each new release is not only exciting but essential—especially with how fast Microsoft is evolving the platform.
So, I dove into the newest release: .NET 9. And wow—this update brings some major improvements across cloud-native development, performance, and cross-platform UI frameworks like MAUI. Whether you're building modern web apps, services, or desktop/mobile apps, .NET 9 has something powerful to offer.
In this post, I’m summarizing some of the key highlights I found most exciting and useful. Hopefully, this helps you get up to speed quickly too
🌟 What's New in .NET 9?
🔧 Cloud-Native by Default
.NET 9 doubles down on container-first, cloud-native development. Key improvements include:
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Smaller container images: New base images reduce size by up to 30%.
🔗 Official .NET Container Docs -
Native AOT (Ahead-of-Time Compilation): More mature, faster startup, and reduced memory usage.
🔗 Native AOT Overview -
Built-in OpenTelemetry support: Easier tracing, metrics, and logging in distributed systems.
🔗 Distributed Tracing with OpenTelemetry -
Improved support for Kubernetes and Azure App Services.
🔗 Deploy to Azure App Service
⚡ Performance: .NET Gets Even Faster
.NET has always prioritized performance, and .NET 9 continues this trend:
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Optimized JIT and GC improvements.
🔗 Performance Improvements in .NET -
Faster minimal APIs and lower memory footprint.
🔗 Minimal APIs Overview -
Blazing fast HTTP/3 support in ASP.NET Core.
🔗 HTTP/3 Support -
Smarter code trimming and tree-shaking in AOT apps.
🔗 Trimming in .NET
🧱 ASP.NET Core: The Web Stack Evolves
ASP.NET Core in .NET 9 brings several developer-friendly updates:
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Blazor unification complete: You can now mix server-side and WebAssembly rendering seamlessly.
🔗 Blazor Documentation -
SignalR over HTTP/3: Better real-time experiences.
🔗 SignalR Overview -
Enhanced middleware pipeline with performance-first patterns.
🔗 ASP.NET Core Middleware -
Built-in endpoint filters and validation: Cleaner code, better DX.
🔗 Minimal API Filters
🖥️ .NET MAUI Matures
.NET 9 continues to polish the cross-platform UI framework:
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More stable and responsive UI across iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows.
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Improved Hot Reload and Live Preview support in Visual Studio.
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Simplified lifecycle management and background tasks.
🔗 Get Started with .NET MAUI
🧪 Better Testing, Observability & DevOps
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Improved support for test containers: Run integration tests against ephemeral containers.
🔗 .NET Test Container Docs -
dotnet monitornow comes with auto-discovery and UI enhancements.
🔗 dotnet monitor -
Better profiling and diagnostics support in Visual Studio and CLI.
🔗 .NET Diagnostics Tools
💡 C# 13: Smarter, Cleaner Code
.NET 9 ships with C# 13, bringing:
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Parameter null checking with
!! -
Default lambda parameters
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Collection literals
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Primary constructors for all types
🔗 What's New in C# 13
These features reduce boilerplate and make your code more readable and expressive.
🛠️ Tooling & Ecosystem
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Visual Studio 2025 brings tighter integration with .NET 9, from Hot Reload to AI-assisted code fixes.
🔗 Visual Studio 2025 Preview -
Improved support in JetBrains Rider and VS Code extensions.
🔗 C# Dev Kit for VS Code -
Updated NuGet performance and improved restore speed.
🔗 NuGet Documentation
🧭 Final Thoughts
.NET 9 isn’t just an update—it’s a refinement of a developer-first, cloud-ready, performance-oriented ecosystem. Microsoft has listened to the community and delivered a platform that’s ready for the next generation of applications.
Whether you're a backend engineer, cloud architect, or full-stack developer, .NET 9 will save you time, reduce complexity, and future-proof your apps.
🎯 Ready to dive in?
👉 Download .NET 9
👉 Try the new templates: dotnet new
👉 Upgrade your existing projects with dotnet upgrade
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