.NET 10
The Latest Update to the .NET Framework
The newest release of .NET has arrived, and it represents more than another yearly refresh. .NET 10 continues Microsoft’s ongoing project of strengthening the .NET framework for the next generation of modern applications, with updates that improve performance, tighten security and bring greater clarity to architecture choices across the entire ecosystem.
What does .NET 10 offer beyond .NET 9?
The step from .NET 9 to .NET 10 is not one of sweeping reinvention, but rather a refinement that developers actually feel in their day to day work. Expect faster runtime behaviour, cleaner configuration, and more predictable tooling. These improvements go beyond the theoretical, instead carrying real weight in how teams plan, budget and maintain long running systems.
By smoothing some of the rougher edges left in earlier versions, .NET 10 helps reduce the total cost of ownership. With expanded tooling, development teams can move faster and with greater confidence; with real productivity gains tied directly into planning and engineering discipline.
.NET 10 is also a Long Term Support (LTS) release compared to .NET 9 which is a Standard Term Support release. But what does this mean?
- In short, it means that the most recent version of .NET has a longer period of Microsoft support with three years of updates from the day of its release during the support lifecycle (.NET 10 support comes to a close on November 14th 2028).
- .NET 9 on the other hand is only supported until November 10th 2026.
- It is important to note that .NET 9’s support window was extended, with Microsoft’s announcement of Standard Term Release support increasing for future STS releases up to 24 months rather than the historical 18 months.
- Furthermore, .NET 10’s LTS predecessor (.NET 8) also sees an end to its support window on November 10th 2026.
Consequently, a reassessment of upgrade timings is recommended to ensure that your website, app or digital solution does not get left behind on a legacy framework update, with this reflected in Microsoft’s recommendation that “production applications upgrade to .NET 10 to take advantage of the extended support window, significant performance improvements, and new capabilities.”.
How does .NET 10 improve cross platform development?
.NET 10 pushes the unified .NET vision further, making it easier to build applications that stretch across cloud, web and desktop without fighting fragmentation. The framework’s evolution means fewer friction points as teams deploy to multiple environments; whether that’s a web API in Azure, a background service, or a rich desktop client.
By bringing greater consistency across these platforms, .NET 10 helps reduce development risk and increases predictability. Teams can reuse architectural patterns, share code more easily, and avoid platform specific edge cases. The result? Smoother delivery, more coherent codebases and fewer last minute blockers in production.
What performance gains can teams expect from .NET 10?
One of the most visible and impactful changes in .NET 10 is performance. According to Microsoft, this is the fastest .NET runtime yet, with optimisations in the JIT compiler, better inlining, improved devirtualisation and escape analysis to enable more stack allocation.
A few of the headline improvements include:
- Escape Analysis & Stack Allocation: In many scenarios the compiler can now better detect objects that do not escape a method, allowing them to be allocated on the stack rather than the heap, which reduces garbage collector (GC) pressure.
- Better Inlining and Devirtualisation: More aggressive inlining and guarded devirtualisation mean virtual method calls can be optimised into more efficient code that runs faster, effectively resulting in optimised performance of builds.
- Collections & LINQ: There are optimisations in how collections are enumerated, and LINQ operations are more efficient, meaning common operations (e.g. iteration) use less overhead in many real world cases.
- Memory Efficiency: GC tuning (e.g. in Gen0 behaviour) and reduced allocation work help lower overall memory consumption and make performance more predictable.
Though these optimisations may sound like microbenchmarks and will vary by scenario, these improvements compound upon one another; thereby translating into lower latency, less memory use, and more scalable services for production environments.
How has security evolved in .NET 10?
With the introduction of stronger defaults, refined identity handling, and clarified best practice patterns by Microsoft, it is clear to see that the evolution of security is more than an incremental one. One of the most forward looking changes is in .NET 10’s approach to cryptography. Widely accepted in the tech and science communities, Moore’s Law dictates that the doubling of transistors on computer chips is anticipated every two years, with this leading to an exponential increase in performance and decrease in cost. While traditional hardware improvements are slowing, emerging quantum computing introduces new cryptographic threats, making future proofing of systems increasingly important.
Factoring in these developments, .NET 10 has implemented a bulwark against quantum computing attack with support for post-quantum cryptography (PQC) asymmetric algorithms, specifically ML-DSA (a signature algorithm), ML-KEM (a key-encapsulation mechanism) and SLH-DSA. These are designed to be resistant to attacks from quantum computers, positioning .NET for the long term future of secure identity. It is however important to note that the cryptography algorithms are only supported on platforms where the underlying OS cryptography library supports them: e.g. OpenSSL 3.5+ on Linux or Windows CNG with PQC support.
“Quantum computing advances make post-quantum cryptography increasingly important. .NET 10’s expanded PQC support helps future-proof your applications against quantum threats while maintaining compatibility with existing systems.”Microsoft Dev Blog - Announcing .NET 10 - https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-dotnet-10/
On the identity front, there are breaking changes to be aware of. For example, cookie login redirects have been turned off by default for known API endpoints, meaning old patterns may no longer behave the same for ASP.NET CORE MVC and Razor Page hosting scenarios.
Meanwhile some legacy APIs like IActionContextAccessor and ActionContextAccessor are now obsolete. These refinements are deliberate: they move identity code toward safer, more robust patterns.
Why choose Cold Banana for .NET development?
At Cold Banana, we specialise in exactly this kind of complexity: we don’t just build .NET systems, we guide our clients and partner organisations through decisions like when and how to upgrade, and how to design architecture to get long term benefits from new releases like .NET 10.
Our experience spans enterprise platforms, public service applications and deeply custom .NET builds. For instance, we’ve partnered with
Event Insurance to build a bespoke .NET system that manages critical transactional workflows. With Local Food Links, we created a tailored .NET system that helps communities coordinate food distribution and logistics, maximising both efficiency and positive impact for local school communities.
In both cases, our work was powered by a deep technical understanding of .NET… not just what it can do today, but how future releases (like .NET 10) will affect maintainability, performance and security of all of our clients’ websites, applications and digital experiences.
Ready to explore .NET 10 with Cold Banana?
If you’re curious about how we can harness the power of .NET 10 to create a digital solution for our business, or how the shift from .NET 9 to .NET 10 could impact your architecture, get in touch. We can help map out a migration strategy, run technical assessments, or even prototype new modules under the latest runtime.
With Cold Banana’s expert team by your side, you get clarity, precision and a steady technical hand built on years of real world .NET experience!
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