.NET Standard

.NET Standard is a specification of the common APIs that are supported by all current and future .NET platforms. The .NET platforms (top row) are releases of the .NET technologies that support application development and execution in various OS and device environments. Other .NET platforms, indicated in the fourth column, include the Universal Windows Platform for Windows 10 and possible future platforms, such as the Unity game engine. The platforms offer various app models (second row) that support development of specific application types, such as Windows desktop applications, Web sites, and mobile device apps.

The .NET Standard library includes APIs that are common to all platforms. Code that uses .NET Standard APIs (business logic that performs the same function regardless of platform) can be shared across applications built for any .NET platform, helping developers create cross-platform applications and reuse and maintain code.

The .NET platforms use a common infrastructure (bottom row) of development tools and runtimes.