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ASP.NET vs PHP

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posted 12/1/2008 by vivek_iit

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Update: The test below shows interesting results:

http://misfitgeek.com/blog/aspnet/php-versus-asp-net-ndash-windows-versus-linux-ndash-who-rsquo-s-the-fastest/

"Yes, ASP.NET is universally faster than PHP (on Windows and on Linux) with the exceptions of File Copy and Attribute operations."

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Which is better for scalable commercial applications: ASP.NET or PHP?

This question has been raised so many times with my different clients tempting me to know how other fellow programmers feel on this issue. This is what I think:

1. ASP.NET being object oriented is more "organized" and maintainable than scripted PHP. Besides being fully compiled, ASP.NET platform offers loads of pure OO features like inheritance, polymorphism, overloading etc. Newer versions of PHP support OOP but its very limited compared to ASP.NET. My fellow "PHP friend" argued otherwise, and says that PHP has evolved a lot since its inception, but when I showed him what ASP.NET can do with VS (with options like partial classes) he was amazed and agreed that ASP.NET is definitely a step ahead when compared to PHP in terms of being more "flexible".

2. Development in ASP.NET is becoming more and more faster thanks to integrated VS environment, great debugging support and a lot of out-of-the-box controls.

3. Framework Class Library (FCL) is a huge asset compared to PHPs libraries.

4. PHP is more "hackable" than ASP.NET (even though bad programming can lead to hacks in any framework based app)

5. PHP promotes messy code and has poor error handling capabilites.

6. ASP.NET offers more powerful features to control entire HTTP pipeline in its different stages using HttpModules and HttpHandlers.

7. ASP.NET offers different methods to store session data.

8. ASP.NET is more scalable than PHP.

9. ASP.NET is slightly faster than PHP (when we talk of large scale apps)

10. ASP.NET will cost less in terms of hardware to support and scale an application.

11. ASP.NET is "free" just like PHP and there is no considerable difference between hosting costs these days.


I would like to know what others think ! Let me know if you think I am wrong somewhere, I have programmed in PHP years back so I know PHP too. I do agree that the choice of platform is guided by a lot of external factors and with right skill set and tech know-how, developers can create great applications in either platform. But still I feel that the ASP.NET is "more comfortable".

 
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Author

vivek_iit vivek_iit (Member since: 11/27/2008)
I am one of the administrators at CodeAsp.Net and I love programming, architecting solutions, code reviews, teaching and writing about ASP.NET.

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Comments (5)

  • awake 3/30/2009 2:19:34 PM by:  awake
    ASP.NET is impressive no doubt (and I program in ASP.NET), but there is nothing it does that PHP cannot do. Also there are PHP frameworks that make life equally as easy as what ASP.NET offers (as far as security, membership and other functionalitieis go) Also you cannot compare PHP's FREE to ASP.NET FREE, and yes, ASP.NET hosting is slightly higher that PHP hosting. I really did not get your point about ASP.NET costing less in terms of hardware to support? HOW in the 21st century did you come up with this? You should check out PRADO and Yii (two awesome php frameworks). - http://pradosoft.com - http://yiiframework.com
  • vivek_iit 3/30/2009 8:58:19 PM by:  vivek_iit
    @awake: this comes from my personal experience when working with two major websites in PHP which the client wanted to convert to .NET. After the conversion, we compared the load tests and realized that there is a slight reduction in hosting costs because of the inbuilt support in asp.net for session scaling like State server and sql server based sessions.PHP does scale, but I guess there is no in built support like in ASP.NET, hence the term "costly".
  • Rob 5/16/2009 7:46:27 PM by:  Rob
    I've spent 5 years working on commercial applications in PHP (from small to large corporates) and the past 4 with C# ASP.Net (on high profile sites) and this is what I've noticed from my own experience with both PHP * Simpler and quicker to learn * Faster to deploy for smaller sites * Loosely typed, easier to develop smaller applications with. * Generally quicker to make simpler changes to existing apps/sites ASP.NET * More complex to learn * Superior Development Environment * .Net Framework contains a lot of plumbing for all sorts of functionality * Closer to traditional O.O Programming model * More time-consuming for smaller changes to applications * Designed to scale I think PHP is great for smaller to medium size applications (dont get me wrong, there are some awesome large apps in php), however feel that ASP.Net provides a more robust programming model for larger more complex software apps. Combine that with the best IDE on the market (that can actually speed up development quite a lot) Conclusion: While either language can achieve the same results (I know this because I have done it in both PHP and ASP.Net), wouldn't you choose the most appropriate language for the task at hand. PHP - Simpler applications, or Established Open Source Apps (Like CMS, ECommerce, etc) ASP.Net - Custom Web and Desktop applications with lots of functionality, complex workflow etc
  • Graphicalinsight 11/26/2009 2:42:23 PM by:  Graphicalinsight
    Hell there.. I am a web developer fluent with Tomcat-jakarta, Server 2008, and Apache Axis 2(Perl,PHP,Python,Ruby, Curl). I was wondering why there is all this heated debate going on whether php or asp is better? Since the new Server 2008 Model is much much better than its previous Server 2003 counterpart. And Server 2008 has php support... Why aren't people Asking if J2ee, or Asp.net applications is best? Besides, there is only so much you can do w/o Acrobat, ActiveX,Flash Player, Shockwave, Jvm, etc. So why is the debate about server scripting that is in the same "server farm"? P.S. Did you mention using the correct DTD, and XML Version, along with your application/xml+xhtml?
  • Graphicalinsight 11/26/2009 2:44:51 PM by:  Graphicalinsight
    Hell there.. I am a web developer fluent with Tomcat-jakarta, Server 2008, and Apache Axis 2(Perl,PHP,Python,Ruby, Curl). I was wondering why there is all this heated debate going on whether php or asp is better? Since the new Server 2008 Model is much much better than its previous Server 2003 counterpart. And Server 2008 has php support... Why aren't people Asking if J2ee, or Asp.net applications is best? Besides, there is only so much you can do w/o Acrobat, ActiveX,Flash Player, Shockwave, Jvm, etc. So why is the debate about server scripting that is in the same "server farm"? P.S. Did you mention using the correct DTD, and XML Version, along with your application/xml+xhtml?

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