ASP.NET Identity and IdentityServer connection

Question

Can somebody explain the connection between Identity and IdentityServer?

There was a recent article that says there will be a new version of IdentityServer (ie IdentityServer 4).

I'm doing a ASP.NET 5 project. I only heard of Identity 3 before and I'm planning to use it.

Can I use Identity 3 in my project without using this IdentityServer?

Answer 1

Can somebody explain the connection between Identity and IdentityServer?

There's no direct connection: ASP.NET Identity is a membership provider (i.e a way to manage your users) while IdentityServer is an OAuth2/OpenID Connect server you can use to support token authentication.

That said, IdentityServer4 will eventually support ASP.NET Identity 3 as a membership store.

Can I use Identity 3 in my project without using this IdentityServer?

Sure, you can use ASP.NET Identity without IdentityServer (and vice versa).