Autofac vs. Unity

[Mark Richman]

I have "inherited" a project that uses Autofac. I am not familiar with Autofac, but I have used Castle Windsor and Unity. What makes Autofac a better choice overall? I plan on rewriting/rearchitecting this applicaiton framework and I would like to make an informed decision about which IoC to choose. Without knowing anything, I would choose Unity simply because it's Microsoft.

[Travis Illig]

It would probably be good to look at some of the IoC container comparisons that are out there to help inform you of the various differences.

• https://github.com/ashmind/net-feature-tests is a set of comparative feature tests (and has a nice site showing results) written by the author of these articles:
  
• http://blog.ashmind.com/2008/08/19/comparing-net-di-ioc-frameworks-part-1/
• http://blog.ashmind.com/2008/09/08/comparing-net-di-ioc-frameworks-part-2/
• http://blog.ashmind.com/2009/10/12/net-di-ioc-frameworks-revisited/
• There are also several perf comparisons
• http://www.palmmedia.de/blog/2011/8/30/ioc-container-benchmark-performance-comparison
  
• https://github.com/danielpalme/IocPerformance
  
• http://www.iocbattle.com/
  

Obviously we're going to be a little biased. :)

I like Autofac and got involved because, after having used a few different containers, the syntax and the features of Autofac appealed to me most. There are lots of different factors in making a choice for your IoC container - syntax, configurability, features, performance, community, documentation, etc. I don't know of any "definitive article" that compares and contrasts all of these.

-T

[Kendall Bennett]

I have never used any other IoC container except Ninject, and compared to Ninject, Autofac wins hands down. Best thing we ever did was switch.

Regards,

Kendall Bennett, CEO 
http://www.AMainHobbies.com
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[Jim Bolla]

Use whichever one you are most comfortable with, are most willing to support in the long term. I don't think "because it's Microsoft" is a very good argument to choose a technology. As far as features comparisons go, this seems to be the most current and comprehensive analysis I've seen: http://featuretests.apphb.com/DependencyInjection.html