Web Design and Development
PHP vs. ASP – Which Is Best For Your Application?
PHP (Pre Hypertext Processor) and ASP (Active Server Pages) are the two most popular means for building web applications. Many people believe that these two programming languages could be used interchangeably. And while they are each capable of building applications with the same functionality, there are some noteworthy differences between the two.
The most noteworthy differences include:
- price
- platform compatibility
- developer community
- speed
Price
There is a very large difference between PHP and ASP in terms of price. PHP is free. On the other hand, ASP requires both initial and ongoing costs for maintenance and debugging. Furthermore, any additional ASP libraries will also come with a price tag.
Platform Compatibility
PHP runs on multiple platforms, both Linux Apache and Windows IIS. Only recently have some versions of ASP been able to run on other platforms. So if you are looking for maximum platform compatibility, it is best to opt for PHP.
Developer Community
Unlike ASP, PHP has a fairly large developer community that is active in reporting bugs and creating additional PHP libraries. (See PEAR.)
Additionally, PHP developers have contributed to a variety of open source projects. In our article What Is Open Source?, we talk about some open source projects that have been built using PHP.
Speed
PHP is also faster than ASP. So if you have an application that performs multiple queries or is frequently accessed, it would be best to use a language that was more efficient.
In addition to the four bullets mentioned above, there are some other points for comparison. The table below summarizes the differences. (This table was taken from PHP and ASP.NET Go Head-to-Head.)
| PHP 4 | PHP 5 | ASP.net | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software price | free | free | free |
| Platform price | free | free | $$ |
| Speed | strong | strong | weak |
| Efficiency | strong | strong | weak |
| Security | strong | strong | strong |
| Platform | strong | strong | weak (IIS only) |
| Platform | any | any | win32 (IIS only) |
| Source available | yes | yes | no |
| Exceptions | no | yes | yes |
| OOP | weak | strong | strong |
So… Which Should You Choose?
When it comes down to it, PHP is the overall winner in terms of price, speed, platform compatibility, and the size and responsiveness of its developer community. However, before you make your decision, you should also consider the relative benefits of using other popular languages such as JSP (Java Server Pages) and ROR (Ruby On Rails).
Tags: Linux, open source, PHP, platform, Windows9 Responses to “PHP vs. ASP – Which Is Best For Your Application?”
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it’s a very good article regarding difference between asp.net and php. especially for those one like me who are delving into this filed( php).
very good article
Thank you. This article really helped me.
I doubt you have any experience in ASP.net
@ben: Thanks for visiting. While we do work primarily with PHP, for the obvious advantages, we do work with ASP from time to time, as some of our clients have older websites which were built on that platform.
This article shows a huge bias towards PHP. I agree with Ben as well. Most of what you have said can be argued, and anyone who says that one language is better than another is not doing enough research. I laughed when it was stated PHP’s speed is “STRONG” and asp.net’s speed is “WEAK”. ASP and ASP.NET work totally different, and a compiled asp.net page is very fast. Also, code reusability with asp.net is exceptional.
Note, I have nothing against PHP–I spent years in developing in it. I prefer asp.net though, drastically better for my needs.
well, your title is PHP vs. ASP
but the table compares PHP vs. ASP.NET
so, PHP vs. ASP or PHP vs. ASP.NET ?
I use both – PHP and ASP.NET, depending on the current site. But I like more ASP.NET
Disgustingly biassed. The cool thing is everyone sees through that so well now.
One of the biggest costs with any project is development time, and you can get through a huge amount more work with .NET technologies.
Not to mention it also being an ideal technology for many other areas such as desktop, server, mobile etc…
Comparing php against .NET is like comparing a microwave to a cooker. They can achieve similar results but they can’t do everything the other can.
I am biased towards PHP too but when it comes to speed, ASP.NET wins hands down. There is noway a interpreted language can beat a compiled one
Not bad. Based on experience I love both PHP and ASP.net. However, I think MS Visual Web Developer is the reason why I prefer ASP.net at this point in time. Express is free, which is great for students and newcommers (or anyone really), and the debugging tools, intellitype, and many other features make this IDE really stand out. If I were making a decision based totally on language preference, it would be PHP. But when I bundle all of the various pros and cons (IDE, costs, performance, development time, etc), I choose ASP.NET again this year (2011) with MS development tools.