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He mentioned that they use the servicestack.text library. I've looked into servicestack recently (using the nuget packages), but then found the library to be pay-to-play. There's an older version (v3) that is BSD licensed that is being maintained. Do any of you have experience with it? I have grown tired of Microsoft pushing new solutions to the same problem (REST service with WCF and then Asp.net web api).

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We used it at the time I gave that talk, we don't anymore. We only used JSON serialization and we have rolled out our own free solution, Jil.

https://github.com/kevin-montrose/Jil

Technically we use Newtonsoft and Jil, Jil replacing Newtonsoft as we become increasingly confident in it.

I wouldn't suggest anyone use Jil in a production role unless you're at Stack Overflow. It's too untested at the moment, and the typical person can't get me on the horn to fix whatever just broke.

Why would I use Jil over Newtosoft ?

You wouldn't right now (Kevin doesn't recommend it). But in the end it you'll want to use it if JSON serialization is a performance bottleneck for you.

ServiceStack is just plain awesome when it comes to developing web services, though it's gone commercial for v4 onward. Nancy is another popular alternative - it's basically Sinatra for .Net. Every time I go back to WCF I want to stab myself in the face.

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