ASP.NET MVC Versions and Features

ASP.NET MVC1

Released in Mar 2009, Runs on .Net 3.5 / Visual Studio 2008, WebForm View Engine, Html Helpers, Ajax Helpers, Routing, Unit Testing

ASP.NET MVC2

Released in Mar 2010, Runs on .Net 3.5 / Visual Studio 2008 & .Net 4.0 / Visual Studio 2010, Strongly typed Html Helpers i.e. lambda expression based Html Helpers, Data Annotation Attributes, Client-side validation, UI helpers with automatic scaffolding & customizable templates, Attribute-based model validation on both client and server, Asynchronous controllers

ASP.NET MVC3

Released in Jan 2011, Runs on .Net 4.0 / Visual Studio 2010, Razor view engine, ViewBag dynamic property for passing data from controller to view, Global Action Filters, Better JavaScript support with unobtrusive JavaScript, jQuery Validation, and JSON binding, Improved Support for Data Annotations, Remote Validation, Compare Attribute, Partial-page output caching, Sessionless Controller, Child Action Output Caching, Dependency Resolver, Entity Framework Code First support, Use of NuGet to deliver software and manage dependencies throughout the platform, Good Intellisense support for Razor into Visual Studio

ASP.NET MVC4

Released in Aug 2012, Runs on .Net 4.0, 4.5 / Visual Studio 2012, ASP.NET Web API, Enhancements to default project templates, Mobile project template using jQuery Mobile, Display Modes, Task support for Asynchronous Controllers, Bundling and minification, Support for the Windows Azure SDK

ASP.NET MVC5

Released in Oct 2013, Runs on .Net 4.5, 4.5.1 / Visual Studio 2013, ASP.NET Web API2, One Asp.Net, Asp.Net Identity, ASP.NET Scaffolding, Authentication filters - run prior to authorization filters in the ASP.NET MVC pipeline, Bootstrap in the MVC template

Click here to read about C# Versions and features