Microservices in C#: Where to Start in 2025

Microservices in C#: Where to Start for Beginners in 2025

It used to seem that microservices were only for giants like Netflix or Amazon. But times have changed. Today, microservice architecture in C# is accessible to every developer who wants to build flexible, scalable, and maintainable systems. If you feel that a monolith is "suffocating" your project, or you simply want to learn a sought-after skill, you've come to the right place.

In this article, we'll cover: where to start, which technologies to choose, and we'll write two real microservices in C# from scratch. No fluff, just practice.

Why C# is an Excellent Choice for Microservices

C# and the .NET ecosystem are not just a language; they are a full-fledged framework for building distributed systems. Here's why many choose microservices in C#:

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• ASP.NET Core — lightweight, cross-platform, and performant. Works on Windows, Linux, macOS.
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• Built-in Docker support — Visual Studio can add Docker support to a project with two clicks.
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• gRPC and SignalR — ready-made solutions for inter-service communication and real-time communications.
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• Entity Framework Core — a convenient ORM that is easily configured for a microservice database.
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• Large community — thousands of ready-made solutions on Stack Overflow and GitHub.
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By the way, if you are just starting your journey with C#, I recommend checking out the basic articles section on PythonLib — there's a lot of useful stuff there to get started.

Where to Start: Project Structure

A beginner's mistake is to immediately start writing code without thinking through the architecture. Let's do it right. First, let's create two microservices:

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• UserService — handles users (registration, profile).
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• OrderService — handles orders.
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Each service will have its own database (SQLite for simplicity) and communicate via REST API. This is enough to start.

Step 1. Create the UserService Project

Open a terminal or Visual Studio and run:

dotnet new webapi -n UserService\ncd UserService\ndotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Sqlite\ndotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design

The project structure will look like this:

UserService/\n├── Controllers/\n│   └── UsersController.cs\n├── Models/\n│   └── User.cs\n├── Data/\n│   └── AppDbContext.cs\n├── Program.cs\n└── appsettings.json

Step 2. Model and Data Context

Create the user model:

// Models/User.cs\npublic class User\n{\n    public int Id { get; set; }\n    public string Name { get; set; } = string.Empty;\n    public string Email { get; set; } = string.Empty;\n    public DateTime CreatedAt { get; set; } = DateTime.UtcNow;\n}

And the database context:

// Data/AppDbContext.cs\nusing Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;\n\npublic class AppDbContext : DbContext\n{\n    public AppDbContext(DbContextOptions<AppDbContext> options) : base(options) { }\n    public DbSet<User> Users { get; set; }\n}

Configure the connection in appsettings.json:

{\n  "ConnectionStrings": {\n    "DefaultConnection": "Data Source=users.db"\n  },\n  "Logging": {\n    "LogLevel": { "Default": "Information" }\n  }\n}

Register services in Program.cs:

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);\n\nbuilder.Services.AddDbContext<AppDbContext>(options =>\n    options.UseSqlite(builder.Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection")));\n\nbuilder.Services.AddControllers();\nbuilder.Services.AddEndpointsApiExplorer();\nbuilder.Services.AddSwaggerGen();\n\nvar app = builder.Build();\n\n// Auto