Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Services can be hosted with Internet Information Services (IIS); with the new Windows Activation Service (WAS) installed with IIS 7.0; or with any managed application process including console, Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), or managed Windows service applications.
Selecting the right hosting environment for your services is a choice driven largely by deployment requirements related to transport protocol and operating platform.
A summary of hosting options and supported features:
| Feature | Self-Hosting | IIS Hosting | WAS Hosting |
| Executable Process/ App Domain | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Configuration | App.config | Web.config | Web.config |
| Activation | Manual at startup | Message-based | Message-based |
| Idle-Time Management | No | Yes | Yes |
| Health Monitoring | No | Yes | Yes |
| Process Recycling | No | Yes | Yes |
| Management Tools | No | Yes | Yes |
A summary of hosting options based on operating platform and communication protocol:
| Operating Platform | Protocol | Hosting Options |
| Windows XP/SP2 | HTTP | IIS 5.1 or self-host |
| Named Pipes, TCP, MSMQ | Self-host | |
| Windows Vista | HTTP, Named Pipes, TCP, MSMQ | WAS or self-host |
| Windows Server 2003 | HTTP | IIS 6.0 |
| Named Pipes, TCP, MSMQ | Self-host | |
| Windows Longhorn Server | HTTP, Named Pipes, TCP, MSMQ | IIS 7.0/WAS or self-host |
