When comparing ASP.NET MVC vs Sails.js, the Slant community recommends ASP.NET MVC for most people. In the question“What is the best web application framework?” ASP.NET MVC is ranked 13th while Sails.js is ranked 15th. The most important reason people chose ASP.NET MVC is:
The framework has many build-in tools, and many packages have been written targeting the framework.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Mature
The framework has many build-in tools, and many packages have been written targeting the framework.
Pro Cross platform
.Net Core can work on any platform.
Pro Widely used
It's pretty easy to find a job with it and there's plenty of documentation and tutorials around.
Pro Extensive documentation
There are a lot of resources available to get help.
Pro Fast
Asp.NET Core on Linux is fast accordingly to TechEmpower benchmarks.
Pro Asp.NET core provides balance between magic/agility and craftsmanship
You can get ordinary details quickly but with complete freedom to make your craft, knowing everything that is happening underneath the cloths. The highly modular system makes it possible to scale small applications to large ones with ease.
Pro It has more users than any other backend web framework
Getting your next contract is easy with this on your CV.
Pro Transparent support for Socket.io
Sails.js is built with a focus on building real time communication apps such as chat or multiplayer games, so naturally it has Socket.io extremely well supported.
Pro MVC architecture
This could be a huge plus, if you prefer to build your apps using the Model View Controller architecture. Using Sails.js you'll find the task of separating the business logic from the user interface and keeping the interactions between them in a separate layer, extremely easy.
Pro JSON API generated for free
Exposes public JSON API for free. No additional routing to be defined. Makes it pretty easy to access data from anywhere.
Pro ORM that can be plugged into any database, or even custom web service
Sails.js uses Waterline ORM at its backend which means you can store your data in any datastore that you like; all you have to do is make a change to the Waterline adapter, this will allow you to store your data in MySQL/Redis or any other kind of database.
Pro So easy to deploy and lift
Pro Great documentation and structure
Clear documentation and easy to understand. The file structure gives you a way to understand where you can start to develop when you encounter a new Sails project
Cons
Con Core and full ASP.NET are bit confusing sometimes
While not in feature parity (yet) they are still apart and support sometimes funky combinations of features - full ASP.NET has all the bells and whistles but doesn't offer cross platform so you may have to do some research what you really need. That being said, it got a lot better in 2.0.
Con Expensive
You need to have the plate to maintain a site.
Con Poor ORM
The built-in Waterline is not well designed and is not suitable for production environments. Populating more than 1 level deep is a nightmare, there is no transaction support, new features/bug fixes are not implemented anywhere near a timely manner (the most requested feature 'deep populate' has been lingering in their github issues list for over a year and a half now).
