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5 Top reasons to choose PHP over ASP.Net

There has always been a conflict when it comes to choosing between ASP.Net and PHP for web development. Which one do you think is better?

If you ask the programmers, they will again bury themselves in confusion as they are unsure of which is more comfortable to work with or which is the one that offers more features. The debate is still on.

PHP is one of the widely used scripting languages, and developers are addicted to it. On the other hand, we have ASP.NET language that has Microsoft as its backup bearer and can be operated across any .NET supported language.

But the ultimate decision is yours. If you are the one in need of the project, then, you are the one who needs to determine whether PHP suits your needs or whether you need to develop your project on the .NET platform?

So, here we will examine the features and benefits of using both that will help you decide which would suit the requirements of your project:

PHP is Hypertext Preprocessor language. It has grabbed all hearts over the internet for the beautiful learning curve that it offers. And, also it has a large developer community following.

Before I begin discussing the differences between the two, let me tell you one difference that you need to bear in mind when thinking about which is the one that will fit your needs.

The point is PHP is a programming language, whereas ASP.NET does not belong to the category of programming languages. C# or VB.Net are the languages usually used with ASP.Net.

That makes it clear! You cannot strike a comparison between PHP and ASP.NET as the latter is a web framework while the former is a programming language.

So, what I am going to do is discuss my thoughts on the benefits and features of both, as you know now that both PHP and ASP.net are two different things.

One of the amazing facts about PHP is that it has been installed across 244 million websites. And, another exciting fact is that it is free of cost and is compiled with a number of frameworks which makes website development easy.

I could not think of a better example than WordPress and Facebook as PHP has powered these.

Now, let us discuss what makes ASP.Net so popular?

ASP.NET being a web framework is also a scripting tool developed by the Microsoft to help developers build web pages and applications for the web.

When using ASP.Net, you are at the advantage of using any .NET programming languages to code.

MySpace and PlentyofFish.com are the examples for the magic of ASP.Net.

As we discussed you now know that ASP.NET is used with programming languages now let us examine what are the pros and cons of using PHP and ASP.Net:

1. Costs:

It is not a new fact that PHP is free of cost, and as you know ASP.Net is a Microsoft product and hence comes with certain charges.

What are the relative costs when using ASP.Net?

• Buying Windows is an expensive affair:

Developers are aware of the fact that development using ASP.Net is possible only on Windows. It has been designed to work on Windows.

It cannot be a problem to most developers. If you are using operating systems such as the MAC or Linux, you may use the Mono Project  to work with ASP.Net on your system.

• Windows hosting:

If we turn back in time, it can be observed that when Windows is used for hosting it is costlier than web hosting done using Linux.

But, now the situation is different. You can easily get the hosting done using Windows as the hosting costs are more or less similar when compared to Linux web hosting charges.

• Integrated Development Environment:

The most widely used IDE for ASP.Net is Visual Studio. Microsoft’s free version of Visual Studio is called as Visual Express.

Some simple things to keep in mind while using either of them for your web development purpose has been stated below:

Regardless of whether you are planning to use PHP or ASP.Net, you need to compile each of them into certain groups as specified below:

• The first form of combination using PHP comprises of Linux OS, My SQL Server, Apache Server and PostgreSQL Server. If you are planning to use this group, then there is more news that will excite you. This group is available for free. There are no hidden charges, and you can even seek the license for free.
• The second combination for PHP is not free. It comes with a considerable amount of fees. This group comprises of Apache, MySQL, PHP and Linux. This combination is one of the widely used ones, but unlike the Windows server, you can get the optimization done with Linux server at comparatively lower charges.

From the perspective of cost-effectiveness, PHP is the recommended programming language.

2. Performance:

What is meant by the performance capability of web applications? It is usually determined by how well the interaction between the database, the script and the server is taking place.

Whenever you are planting a web application in PHP, it will take the LAMP form and by LAMP, we mean Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. The LAMP stack ensures an enhanced performance which is all that you are looking for during web development.

MSSQL is the database that is used in combination with ASP.NET.

The OS and file system that is used on the server profoundly impact the performance. A fact is that Linux Operating System and ext4 file system offer a higher I/O performance when compared to Windows and NTFS file system.

Here, we can conclude that a PHP application that runs on Linux OS has chances of performing better than an ASP.Net application that is hosted on a Windows OS.

This means that the performance and speed of a framework of the platform are interrelated. Regardless of which platform or programming language you are using for developing web applications, you need to bear in mind that the speed of communication between the server and the time taken by the browser to open are closely related.

So, when does the speed get affected?

There are three kinds of scenario across which the speed of the platform can be tested:

The first time you can note the speed is when your website communicates with the server. Here, we will not test the platform speed but what matters is the speed of the backend database servers.

Now, what happens is while the web application tries to interact with the database file that is embedded in the file system utilizes the speed of the OS on which it is working.

As we have already discussed that ASP.Net is a framework and has its functionalities limited to the Windows-based platform, but the scenario is different with PHP as it works across all operating systems no matter what. One of the reasons is that it is open sourced.

Speed and performance are the two advantages that you can enjoy over the servers when using PHP, unlike ASP.Net that exhibits a poor performance.

But PHP or for that matter no programming languages could provide the speed and efficiency of ASP.NET when it comes to code compilation and execution.

3. Scalability: Which is better?

When it comes to the scalability factor, we can find that both PHP and ASP.Net are highly scalable. It depends on how proficient the developer is when using either of them.

The most heavily trafficked site in the world is MySpace built on PHP and Facebook; this popular Social Media network uses ASP.Net.

4. Support:

As we have already discussed PHP is one of the scripting languages that is free of cost. It is open source, and also the developer’s community keeps on contributing to the PHP network.

5. Tools and Editors:

I have observed that most of the PHP developers love to use text editors such as the VIM and Notepad++, rather than implementing a full-fledged IDE.

But, if you prefer to work with an IDE while using PHP, then you will get strong support from editors such as the Eclipse, which is absolutely free of cost.

As you know, ASP.Net is backed up by a variety of IDE’s, but you can use it with Microsoft Visual Studio. It is not free but has ample of features and is one of the most flexible IDEs.

This means that if you have some money to invest then choose ASP.Net for your needs.

How easy it is to learn?

When it comes to learning as a beginner, you might find it difficult to acquaint yourself with ASP.Net as it is written in C#, which is derived from C and as we know the syntax of C is complicated and difficult to interpret no matter, however, proficient the programmer is, they struggle.

PHP is simple and easy to learn as there are only a few lines of code that you need to work upon.

So, who wins?

PHP or ASP.Net?

What’s your answer? From my inferences, I would prefer PHP for a large number of features that it offers. And, also it is free of cost, unlike ASP.Net which will tear your pocket.

Which is the programming language that you use for developing web applications?

Share your thoughts, suggestions and feedback with us.

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