ASP.NET vs SharePoint - which one is better for web developers?

Don't use sharepoint unless you need it, check this article: Challenges when using SharePoint compared to ASP.NET

SharePoint is an Application that sits on top of ASP.net (3.5 SP1 in the current SharePoint 2010 - No ASP.net 4.0 will be possible). They do override a lot of ASP.net built-in functionality (they have their own .aspx Parser and Virtual Path Provider for example).

With ASP.net you have a very well documented, battle-hardened, mature and stable platform with a good API.

With SharePoint you gain a poorly documented, bug-ridden, very limited application that handles a lot of features that you would have to code yourself (e.g., User Profile Management, Document Organization and Versioning and Social Features like Commenting and Tagging), although for the most point SharePoint handles them really poorly and does not allow you to override them, which means that you spend a lot of time rewriting them anyway and trying to integrate them back.

Basically my advice as a SharePoint developer since 2006: Use it when you absolutely have to, avoid it whenever you can and stay with just ASP.net.

SharePoint is good as a simple document management and very light social system. You can quickly customize smaller parts of it and add a lot of value to your company. But in the moment you need something that even only slightly different from what Microsoft envisions, you hit a wall that you can't pass. It's great for what it does, nothing more, nothing less.

I am a Sharepoint Developer... And let me say that I wish it was just ASP.NET! That would be great... It brings with it it's own paradigms which are pretty complicated.

ASP.NET and Sharepoint are 2 'different' technologies. Sharepoint is mostly built with ASP.NET, and delivers ASP.NET pages to a user.

You can use either VB.NET or C# with Sharepoint.

In my opinion, Sharepoint development is only quicker if you are planning on using it's in-built lists, user management etc. Though these do take time to learn. The cool thing about sharepoint is that you can develop web parts, and re-use these web parts on multiple pages throughout the installation.

Microsoft continues to develop both ASP.NET and sharepoint because they are two different beasts, with ASP.NET pages being deliverable through Sharepoint.

As to which is best for you, you haee to make that call. Do you need Sharepoint? Or would a pre-built CMS such as DotNetNuke be better? Or even creating your own site with Windows credentials management so you can use SSO (Single Sign On).

It really depends on what you want to get out of your install. Sharepoint is expensive, and developers for Sharepoint are also expensive because of the specialist knowledge.

As a developer... (I hope my boss isn't watching!!) I much prefer to build things from scratch than to use SP, but that's my job...