What are the types of caching in .NET?

There are 3 types of caches in .NET:

  • In-Memory Cache
  • Persistent in-process Cache
  • Distributed Cache

In .NET, there are primarily three types of caching mechanisms:

  1. Output Caching: This type of caching allows you to cache the output generated by a specific page or user control. It’s particularly useful for content that doesn’t change frequently and can be shared across multiple users. Output caching can significantly improve the performance of web applications by serving cached content instead of regenerating it on every request.
  2. Data Caching: Data caching involves storing application data in memory for quick access. It’s commonly used to cache frequently accessed data such as database query results, application settings, or any other data that would otherwise require repeated expensive operations to retrieve. Data caching helps reduce the load on databases and improves application responsiveness.
  3. Application Caching: Application caching involves storing objects that are shared across multiple users or sessions within an application. These objects could be user-specific data, application settings, or any other objects that need to be accessible throughout the application’s lifetime. Application caching helps improve scalability and performance by reducing the need to recreate or fetch objects repeatedly.

In addition to these types, ASP.NET Core also introduces distributed caching, which allows caching across multiple servers or instances, enabling scalable caching solutions for web applications deployed in a distributed environment.