.NET 10.0 is Ready

Contents

The final version of .NET 10.0 has been available free of charge since the evening of November 11, 2025, as you can read on the download page. For .NET 10.0, developers need the development environment Visual Studio 2026 (alias version 18.0), which was also released in a stable version for the first time yesterday.

Support for 36 months

Microsoft is providing 36 months of Long-Term Support (LTS) for .NET 10.0, from November 2025 to November 2028. Support for the previous version, .NET 9.0, also ends in November 2028, after Microsoft announced in September to extend the originally 18-month limited support to 24 months.

This extension applies from .NET 9.0 onwards to all versions with Standard-Term Support (STS). .NET 11.0, which is scheduled for release in November 2026 (likely on the second Tuesday of November, i.e., November 10, 2026), will again be such a version with Standard-Term Support.

.NET for Android also runs on .NET Core Runtime

The architecture of .NET 10.0 is almost the same as .NET 9.0 (see illustration): numerous application types run based on a common Software Development Kit (SDK), a common base class library, the C#, F#, and Visual Basic .NET languages, and the object-relational mapper Entity Framework Core, which can be used in (almost) all application types. Unlike its predecessor Entity Framework Core 9.0, which was usable on .NET 8.0 and .NET 9.0, version 10.0 of the object-relational mapper runs exclusively on .NET 10.0. Under the hood of .NET 10.0, two different runtimes continue to operate, depending on the application type and operating system: the .NET Core Runtime and the Mono Runtime.

New in .NET 10.0 is that Android applications can now run not only on the Mono Runtime as before but also on the .NET Core Runtime. However, this feature is considered experimental in .NET 10.0. Similarly, the compilation of console applications and browser applications (except within Blazor) to WebAssembly remains an experimental feature.

Numerous breaking changes again

Developers migrating from older .NET versions to .NET 10.0 must not only change the target framework in the project file or the central build configuration file Directory.Build.props to <TargetFramework>net10.0</TargetFramework>, but also consider some breaking changes.

Microsoft documents the breaking changes, of which there are fewer in .NET 10.0 than in previous versions, in three lists:

• Breaking Changes in .NET 10.0
• Breaking Changes in C# 14.0
• Breaking Changes in Entity Framework Core 10.0

.NET 10.0 runs faster

As in previous versions, Microsoft has incorporated numerous performance improvements. In .NET 10.0, these include improvements in execution time and memory allocation for many .NET base classes, which positively impacts numerous applications. Explanations of the performance and memory consumption improvements, along with precise figures, can be found in a very long document.

Heise Conference on .NET 10.0

Improved classes in .NET 10.0, Native AOT with Entity Framework Core 10.0, and more: Dr. Holger Schwichtenberg and other speakers at the online conference betterCode() .NET 10.0 on November 18, 2025, will provide information on these topics. Subsequently, there will be six full-day workshops on topics such as C# 14.0, AI usage, and web APIs.

New features in all areas

.NET 10.0 introduces many new features across the board: in the C# programming language, in the base class library, in object-relational mapping with Entity Framework Core, in JSON serialization with System.Text.Json, the ASP.NET Core and Blazor web frameworks, and the cross-platform UI .NET MAUI. There are also individual improvements in the older Windows desktop frameworks, Windows Forms, and WPF.

heise Developer reported on the new features in .NET 10.0 based on the preview and Release Candidate 1 versions, where significant innovations were present.