Difference between Managed Code and Unmanaged Code

Difference between Managed and Unmanaged code in .NET

Difference between Managed and Unmanaged code in Tabular Form

  • The Key Difference between Managed and Unmanaged code is that Managed Code is byte code executed by a virtual machine like the .NET CLR engine. While Unmanaged code is like the C++ code output as natural OS Hardware dependent binary code executed by the Hardware machine directly.
  • In other words,
    • Code that is managed by the CLR in the .net framework is known as Managed Code.
    • Code that is directly executed by the OS is known as Unmanaged Code.

Comparison Chart Managed Code and Unmanaged code

Comparison Chart

Managed Code Unmanaged code
Managed Code is executed by the CLR. Unmanaged code is executed by the OS.
Memory buffer overflow does not occur in Managed Code. Memory buffer overflow may occur in Unmanaged code.
Managed Code provides runtime services like garbage collection, exception handling, etc. Unmanaged code does not provide runtime services like a garbage collector, exception handling, etc.
The source code is compiled into MSIL The source code is compiled into native code





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