Illusion Technologies: PHP Developers

ASP vs. PHP
By Halstatt Pires

When building web sites, ASP and PHP are very popular
languages. Here’s my opinion on whether ASP or PHP is best

ASP v. PHP

Both ASP and PHP are languages used to build Dynamic Web sites
that can interact with Databases and exchange information. ASP
(Active Server Pages) is from Microsoft and is used with IIS
(Internet Information Server) that runs on Microsoft Servers.
PHP (Personal Home Pages) is from Rasmus Lerdorf, who originally
designed this parsing language which was later modified by
different people. It runs on Unix and Linux servers and it also
has an NT server version.

There are a lot of differences between ASP and PHP.

Cost

To run ASP programs one needs IIS installed on a Windows
platform server, which is not free. PHP programs run on Linux,
which is free. Even the connectivity of the database is
expensive in the case of ASP as MS-SQL is a product of Microsoft
that needs to be purchased. PHP generally uses MySQL, which is
freely available.

Speed

If we compare the speed of ASP and PHP then PHP has an upper
hand. PHP code runs faster than ASP. ASP is built on COM based
architecture, which is an overhead for the server whereas PHP
code runs in its own memory space.

Platform Compatibility

PHP programs can run on various platforms like Linux, Unix,
Windows and Solaris whereas ASP is mainly associated with
Windows platforms. However, ASP can run on a Linux platform with
ASP-Apache installed on the server.

Additional Costs

Many of the tools used in PHP are free of cost and since PHP is
open source a lot of code can be found in open source forums.
PHP has inbuilt features like ftp, email from a web page or even
encryption mechanisms but in ASP such features are not built in
and some additional components are required. Therefore an
additional cost is incurred for such components.

Base Language

PHP is based on C++ language and the syntax used in PHP is
quite similar to C/C++. C/C++ is still considered the best
programming language by many programmers and people who love
this language would surely feel more comfortable with the syntax
of PHP. ASP on the other hand has a more Visual Basic kind of
syntax that again is closely related to only Microsoft products.
So, it depends on a person-to-person which language he or she is
comfortable

Database Connectivity

PHP, being extremely flexible, can connect to various
databases, the most popular being MySQL. ASP mainly uses MS-SQL.

Conclusion

Both languages have their advantages specific to users. Some
would argue that both the languages have their own importance
and depending on the user's requirements the language and the
platform can be chosen. If we talk about developing a discussion
board then ASP is equally capable but many feel the best
discussion boards are developed in PHP. If a user is looking for
some e-commerce application development then many would call ASP
the ideal choice. This does not mean that PHP cannot provide
e-commerce solutions, only that many people choose ASP.

From my perspective, PHP is an all around better choice than
ASP.

About the Author: Halstatt Pires is with the Internet marketing
firm - http://www.marketingtitan.com - a San Diego Internet
marketing and advertising company offering automated web site
systems - http://www.businesscreatorpro.com - for e-commerce
solutions.

Source: http://www.isnare.com