# Kestrel web server

8 Hacker News commenters recommended Kestrel web server and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A fast web server built into ASP.NET Core that people recommend for running .NET apps, including on Linux. The most common caveat is that it performs better on Windows than in Linux containers.

## Why people recommend it

- Very fast in benchmarks (4 comments): "their pursuit for performance is relentless (e.g. see Kestrel and Entity Framework evolution)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46052721)) "Kestrel is one of the fastest servers there is, and it beats every Java server out there." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45898814)) "their Kestrel stack was top 10/20 on techempower benchmarks for a while" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47607267))

## What people warn about

- Weaker container support on Linux (1 comments): "Kestrel is more performant under Windows than Linux, but the container support isn't there" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49443145))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [nginx](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nginx.md): 130 recommend
- [Caddy](https://hackerapproved.com/p/caddy.md): 114 recommend
- [FrankenPHP](https://hackerapproved.com/p/frankenphp.md): 15 recommend
- [Redbean](https://hackerapproved.com/p/redbean.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Kestrel web server", https://hackerapproved.com/p/kestrel/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).