Along with the technological advancements, website development has also experienced a massive hike in terms of new languages, frameworks, programs, and tools. But since each and everyone striving for creating their own place in the web development industry, multiple tools have come up with their own commitment of utility. Some of them stay in the market with their beneficial features and some simply don’t live long. The tools which stay often have been noticed to step into the battle of survival and one such fierce battle can be seen between ASP.Net and PHP.
There has always been a conflict between ASP.Net and PHP when it comes to selecting one over the another for web development. Even the web developers will fall into confusion as they are truly uncertain that which one provides better comfort and better features over the other. It’s like a never-ending debate. We will give you each and every insight regarding PHP and ASP.Net to help you understand these two platforms and take the right decision.
What is PHP?
PHP is one of the most popular and widely used programming languages available today. Hypertext Preprocessor language (famously known as PHP) is a globally acclaimed web programming language which has won millions of hearts with easy application and effortless learning curve in its kitty. Also, a large community of developers follows this language.
One huge statistic that goes in favor of PHP is that 244 million websites are backed by PHP! Moreover, it comes free of cost and compiled with a handful of frameworks which make web development easier than ever. You would be surprised to know PHP’s popularity: websites like Facebook and WordPress is powered by PHP.
What is ASP.Net?
One interesting fact about ASP.Net is that it’s not a programming language! It is an open-source, server-side web application framework. C# and VB.Net are the languages which support ASP.Net. It is compatible with any .Net supported language like the mentioned two and it has Microsoft as the backup bearer. Besides a web framework, ASP.Net is also a scripting tool developed by the software giant Microsoft that helps in building web applications and web pages.
We are here to portray the differences between PHP and ASP.Net with a detailed information, features, utility, functionality, pros, and cons of these two platforms. But the end decision will certainly be yours. You will determine whether PHP satisfies your needs or ASP.Net suits your requirements. However, an overall statement can go in favor of PHP as this has become a ubiquitous language.
Basically, these two platforms can never be compared considering their nature. While one is a scripting language, another is a popular framework. It would be logical to compare PHP with C# (which is the programming language used to build ASP.Net) or compare Laravel (which is a popular framework compatible with PHP) with ASP.Net. You may want to ask why then we are comparing PHP and ASP.Net! It’s a valid question indeed. And the reason for comparing these dissimilar platforms with each other is because of their popularity. being a non-tech guy, everybody would not understand their differences at first. And they would land in Google to find out the differences between ASP.Net and PHP. For them, we have prepared our article with all the pros, cons and features of both the platforms in mind. However, if you’re reading this, you need to keep in mind that logically, these two cannot be compared as mentioned earlier.
Difference Between PHP and ASP.Net
As mentioned above, PHP and ASP.Net belong to different origins, so, you cannot actually compare between these two. Their application, however, may be the reason we are comparing these two. We are going to display the facts about the features and benefits of both the platforms which may simplify your task to choose one over the other.
1. Price
It’s no new fact that PHP is completely free of cost. So, you don’t need to invest a single penny while availing PHP. But when it comes to ASP.Net, the web application framework comes with certain charges being a Microsoft product. But you will be mistaken to think that ASP.Net comes with a one-time cost! There are relative costs involved with ASP.Net.
Purchasing Windows – A Great Expense
ASP.Net is designed keeping Windows in mind, so, any development using ASP.Net is feasible only on the Windows platform. While a large number of developers throughout the globe work on Windows, it won’t be an issue for them. But if you are a Linux or Mac user, you would certainly need to purchase Windows to work with ASP.Net. However, using Mono Project can also be a solution.
Windows Hosting
Windows hosting was costlier than the Linux hosting if we look back in history. But currently, the situation is totally different, since the hosting done using Windows costs more or less same as the hosting done using the Linux.
IDE – Integrated Development Environment
Integrated Development Environment is one of the most important considerations in terms of cost-efficiency. The development using ASP.Net is implemented by making use of the IDE, Visual Studio. A free version of the IDE, namely, VS Express is offered by Microsoft. This VS Express can be an ideal choice for the beginners whereas the pros may look for something more stimulating.
This was the scenario of ASP.Net. If we talk about the PHP, it is supported by numerous IDEs available in the market. The IDEs can be free or paid. Considering PHP’s popularity, free IDEs have also been developed. Moreover, PHP can be run on the Linux web hosting and can also be used with Mac and Windows.
It is quite clear that using PHP will make the job easier for you. But at the end of the day, the ball is in developers’ court. They need to take the decision.
2. Performance
The level of interaction between the script, database, and the server determines the performance capability of the web applications.
A LAMP form is generated while planting a web application in PHP. The LAMP denotes Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. It guarantees an increased performance which is, eventually, every developer’s wish. On the other hand, MSSQL is the database which is used in order with ASP.Net.
It is no secret that the file system and OS you use on the server will have a profound impact on the overall performance. Linux OS with ext4 file system caters a better I/O performance compared to the same of Windows OS and NTFS file system. Thus, we can come to a conclusion that PHP (hosted on Linux OS) has the better scopes of performance than ASP.Net (compatible with Windows OS).
The above statements can also conclude that the performance and speed of a framework are totally interconnected. Irrespective of which language, framework or platform you are using to develop a web application, always keep in mind that there’s a close relationship between the speed of communication on the server and the time consumed by the browser to open.
Your website’s communication with the server is the first time when you can test the speed of communication. Here, the backend database speed is tested rather than the platform speed.
As mentioned earlier in this article, ASP.Net is merely a framework and its functionalities are limited to Windows-based platforms. On the other hand, PHP, being an open-source platform, runs across all the operating systems present at the moment.
The conclusion is PHP can provide you a great performance in terms of speed and performance whereas ASP.Net, on the flipside, may provide a poor performance. However, when it comes to the code compilation, PHP (or any programming language) can cater the speed and efficiency ASP.Net may offer you.
3. Scalability
If we talk about scalability, there will be no such difference between PHP and ASP.Net that we may come up with. The scalability depends on the proficiency of the developer using either of these two.
While some of the most greatly traded websites such as Facebook, Wikipedia, and WordPress are developed using PHP, sites like StackOverflow and Microsoft are powered by ASP.Net which equals these two platforms when the topic revolves around scalability.
4. Tools and Editors
PHP developers have been observed that they love to use Notepad++ or Vim as the text editor instead of utilizing a full-fledged IDE. But working with IDE using PHP will avail you a robust support from the editors like Eclipse which comes completely free of cost.
When it comes to ASP.Net, various IDEs support this framework but it is best to use with Microsoft Visual Studio. Unfortunately, it is not free but fortunately, it comes with numerous features and is considered as one of the most flexible IDEs present in the market.
The bottom line is if you have enough money to invest, you should go for ASP.Net to satisfy your needs.
5. Limitation
Freedom is one thing cherished by each and every developer around the globe. And guess what! Unlike ASP.Net, PHP caters you more than enough freedom that allows you to code anyway. This freedom may bring PHP a step ahead of ASP.Net.
PHP is an open-source programming language which lets the language provide you the freedom to do almost anything you wish. Text editors like Notepad++, Vim, Emacs, Bluefish, jEdit, or even the usual Notepad can be used to do the coding when you use PHP. Eventually, all these text editors will provide you an immense freedom to code.
When you use ASP.Net, the freedom you want will be lessened and limited. Probably, Microsoft Visual Studio is the only way to edit codes.
Another advantage PHP comprises is its compatibility with an array of different Operating Systems. Any OS would support PHP including Linux, Unix, Mac, and Windows.
6. Frameworks
Undoubtedly, PHP will win this aspect of comparison. Since ASP.Net itself is a single framework and PHP is a popular open-source programming language, quite clearly, PHP would have a lot of frameworks listed in its kitty. The PHP community is too large and the regular development and rising popularity are inducing the developers to add new frameworks.
Thus, if you are trying to fix certain things or in doubt regarding database access libraries, code reuse or session management, a handful of PHP frameworks are available to help you in the crisis. Following are some of the most popular PHP frameworks:
7. Popularity
PHP wins without any fight when it comes to the popularity of PHP and ASP.Net! The massive use of this programming language has already been mentioned (244 million websites are built on PHP) and the popularity only to be seen raising.
As the statistics go, PHP has a share of 67% among the top million websites across the world as per the data collected in April 2018. ASP.Net, on the flipside, gets its hand on 30% of the websites. When surveyed on top 100k websites, PHP contains almost 57% and ASP.Net manages to get 37% share. And when the boundary was shortened more (among top 10k websites), the result was PHP comprising of 53% share and ASP.Net accumulated almost 37% share.
These statistics are the best proof of the fact that PHP is way more popular among the web developers than ASP.Net.
8. Support
When it comes to the support, PHP is one of the open-source scripting languages which comes free of cost. And as described earlier, a huge developer community is backing up the language during an issue. On the other hand, ASP.Net does not have such large community which may be a drawback of the framework in terms of support.
9. Fixing Problems
We have already mentioned how helpful PHP can become and how much support you can obtain while developing using this programming language. This support is one of the key reasons why it is adored by the developers across the world and it is also the reason why they choose PHP over ASP.Net. But if we leave these aspects, even then PHP is exceptional at fixing problems.
You are developing a web application and you are on a tight deadline. What happens when you come across a problem? How do you fix those issues which are popping up during the development?
Unlike ASP.Net, PHP will allow you to find out where the issue is arising and how to reach the solution of the issue. The huge PHP community will play a pivotal role in availing you the best solution ever possible without beating around the bush.
10. Speed
PHP wins the aspect of speed as well! Yes, you will hardly (probably never) find out any programming language which could beat PHP at the pace of executing an operation.
PHP does not make use of the system resources in exorbitance which results in a faster pace of operation made by PHP compared to the other languages available at the moment. Moreover, PHP never creates any ado while hosting. As a result, it is always an easy task to host PHP and that’s the reason there are numerous hosts available in the market who are prepared to host PHP.
Using PHP with other software or tool is also fine and you don’t need to worry a bit. The process will never slow down and PHP will maintain its speed without disturbing the other process.
11. Database Support
Just as we discussed in almost all the points above, PHP is supported by almost every other process and platform and when it comes to the database support, nothing changes with the supportive nature of PHP. This programming language is scalable, supportive, and integrable to more or less all the databases that include MySQL.
If you want an example of the PHP and MySQL collaboration, WordPress will be the best paradigm since WordPress employs the PHP coding with MySQL database for its CMS (Content Management System) which makes things easier. On the other hand, Wikipedia is another huge example of implementing PHP coding with a database.
So, this can be a valid reason to choose PHP over ASP.Net. When you get such support from various databases, there’s no reason for ignoring a language.
We believe you have already chosen between PHP and ASP.Net. We also have a strong belief that you would not ignore PHP considering the detailed comparison described above. Almost every point shows a clear winner – PHP. Now, we will go into more details only on PHP and tell you what the benefits are you may start enjoying by using the language.
Benefits of PHP
We have already crafted a whole article regarding the benefits of PHP. Here, we are going to give you a short brief about the advantages it offers. If you require more information, head to the article.
Easy to Learn and Simple
You may already know how simple and easy-to-learn PHP actually is. So, why are we repeating the statement? Basically, we would like to share you how we, at Actovision It Solutions, suggest our clients choose PHP over ASP.Net or any other languages as such.
The team of web developers at Actovision It Solutions use PHP in a great amount and also recommend this language to every client for getting their website developed. PHP is one of those languages which is immensely simple and easy to learn for a person with little or no technological know-how. When we suggest our clientele to use PHP, they have always been impressed.
PHP would help them in every crisis and they can fix their own problems with PHP without taking any assistance from the developer or the web development company they previously hired.
Coding in PHP
PHP was originally written in C. The reason for this was to preserve the scripts which were derived from PERL scripting language. Thus, an acquaintance with C language will make PHP easier to code. Moreover, you would not experience any complications in C language at the time of working with PHP.
ASP.Net is considered better by some developers with a number of programming options whereas PHP provides the coding that follows the same pattern. But if we take a deep look, it may be explained why PHP rises as a better solution. PHP has enabled the startups and small businesses to get a website developed without much hassle and forming complexities.
Compatibility
Both ASP.Net and PHP have been around the industry for quite a long time. But the reason why people choose PHP over ASP.Net is the compatibility and flexibility of PHP.
PHP can be used in almost any context regardless of the operating system. So, it makes PHP a ubiquitous option for you while developing a website. With ASP.Net, we are certainly doubtful about the compatibility.
Furthermore, most of the relational databases support PHP and the programming language offers the flexibility to run on almost any web server. This takes PHP to the top of the compatibility, unlike ASP.Net which may not operate with everything.
So, these are the advantages PHP can offer you. Now, we are heading to the drawbacks of PHP which will help you take the right decision after knowing every little thing.
Drawbacks of PHP
Since we are offering a neutral viewpoint and opting to help you take the best foot forward, it would be unwise not to mention the drawbacks PHP contains. While PHP has a huge number of advantages, we need to agree with the fact that it has a few drawbacks as well when compared to ASP.Net. Let’s have a look.
We have mentioned that coding with PHP is very effortless and simple. But the downside is that PHP can only analyze codes within its delimiters. Any extension beyond the delimiters will be passed to the output which is not wanted from the developers’ side.
You will discover class naming collisions in PHP. Namespacing is lacking in PHP and this causes a drawback for the language. The variables used in PHP don’t come as a type and that creates another disadvantage while using PHP.
Last but not the least, PHP cannot be used to develop a desktop application.
So, you have read the comparison between PHP and ASP.Net, the advantages of PHP and the drawbacks of the programming language as well. Now, it’s time to decide which one takes the trophy home. We have come to the last part of our article where we will come to the conclusion regarding the better solution between PHP and ASP.Net.
PHP vs ASP.Net – The Conclusion
It may vary from one person to another. But in our opinion, PHP will stay much ahead of ASP.Net considering its huge number of features, functionality, support, and free of cost nature. ASP.Net, on the other hand, will tear your pocket with its costly solutions.
So, which one do you think has won your heart between PHP and ASP.Net? Share your thoughts with us. Be cautious! Understand your project, its requirement, and then you can take the right decision. In the business world, every choice counts.
