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132 Comments
- aliengoods, on 02/05/2008, -3/+43I disagree. I've been developing in PHP since version 3 and ASP.NET for 4 years. Let's look at their arguments, but also consider you have to look at PHP-MySQL and ASP.Net-MSSQL, because in the real world, very little is done without some type of database interaction.
PHP IS FREE - They argue that ASP is free too, but seem to forget you have to buy the OS. And if you're going to be doing any real world development, chances are you're going to need to integrate into an Active Directory Domain, or use Sharepoint, or some other MS tech. Chances are these packages will require Windows Server 2003, and most likely MSSQL server. And that is going to cost you. Plus, be ready to upgrade your hardware if you don't already have something with the horsepower it requires. Score: PHP 1 – ASP.net 0
SUPPORT - I get my support for PHP and .Net apps in the same manner. On the web. I'm usually working for companies that are too cheap to purchase a support contract from MS, so that's my best option. Having said that, if you know the good sites to visit the support online from both communities is excellent. Score: PHP 1 – ASP.net 1
LANGUAGE AND DEVELOPMENT - PHP is essentially the same language, except for a complete update of the object model in version 5, as well as a number of other functions to make my life easier. And since they're almost mirroring Java, I don't have to learn yet another language and all of the nuances that follow. But in fairness, you can use multiple languages in .Net, so I'll give them this one (I would also argue that the abundance of languages makes things more difficult to support because you have MBAs thinking they know VB, and TRY to do something). Score: PHP 0 – ASP.net 1
SECURITY - PHP is no more secure than ASP, and ASP is no more secure than PHP. An inexperienced developer can leave doors wide open. End of story. Score: PHP 0 – ASP.net 0
SPEED AND EFFICIENCY - I don't know what benchmarks they're considering, but no. A PHP-MySQL site is most likely faster than an ASP-MSSQL site. If it isn't, someone who shouldn't be writing code is working for your company and most likely has a loop of a million queries somewhere in the code. Score: PHP 1 – ASP.net 0
HOSTING COSTS - You can get dedicated servers for both platforms for under $100/month, so they're both cheap if you're looking at it from a business perspective. Score: PHP 1 – ASP.net 1
FINAL SCORE: PHP 4 – ASP.net 3
But keep in mind, the final score is worthless if you don't have skilled developers. Otherwise you've got a million dollar toolkit and a mechanic that doesn't know how to change a tire. - thetanbark, on 02/05/2008, -1/+21"ASP.net one central support for the product, timely updates, extensive documentation, and software development kits (SDK’s)"
PHP has one of the most easy to understand and well-written manuals out there. That, in addition to the comments, is enough to satisfy most developers. Not to mention it's one of the easiest languages to read and understand. - weneedsound, on 02/05/2008, -2/+21This is totally blog spam. ASP gets points for support and language semantics. What? Both of those points are subjective. As for security there are a lot of good documents dealing with how you should approach a building a secure application.
- armo, on 02/05/2008, -2/+19I have to say I prefer developing in asp.net nowadays. However, PHP is far more free than asp.net. It's free as in freedom as well as free as in beer. With ASP.NET in reality you need a windows license to run IIS and the .net framework, although the mono project and XSP goes some way towards redressing this.
Support should really be a tie IMHO, I have almost always found community support answers my questions far more quickly than commercial support. I don't have a problem with patches being released when they are made rather than being held back for upto a month just so they can fit into the release schedule either. Open Source generally release them very quickly as well.
Language I completely agree, it's a really nice framework to develop in, which is the main reason I use it.
On security, you can't compare systems like that security is more than the single application you have to consider the system as a whole. There's no reason why you can't run a secure system on either platform without being a security guru. Not sure about the extra built-in security features asp.net provides, could you describe what exactly?
Speed, yep, both good, if anything asp's faster. Hosting, not a huge amount of difference I agree.
PHP 5 , ASP.NET 5
So, I think, it's a tie. Although that depends how much weight you put on each measure. - jsd8cc, on 02/05/2008, -3/+17Wow, I don't know where to begin. Free? Yes, technically ASP.NET is free, but you forget one thing...I have to BUY Windows. Unlike PHP, which runs on Windows, Linux, MacOS, Solaris, etc., etc.
I could go on, but here is a MUCH better article on PHP vs. ASP.NET: http://www.bauani.org/articles/2006/06/php-and-asp ...
"Price. Here, we must consider not simply the price tag of the initial investment, which, in the case of PHP, is obviously free, but also the implementation, maintenance, and debugging costs. In the case of PHP, you may invest in the Zend optimization engine. With ASP, however, you're investing from the very beginning, and you're spending for add-on technologies—libraries for doing graphics manipulations, for instance. But, in the long term, PHP isn't going to press you to upgrade and collect more licensing fees. Everyone who has dealt with complex licensing also knows that companies spend time and money just ensuring they are compliant. Furthermore, you have a difference in response when getting bugs fixed. This, of course, translates to time, which translates to cost for overall development.
Speed and efficiency. As I mentioned earlier, ASP.NET is a framework allowing you to use various programming languages. In addition, it is touted as having a great object-oriented model. All this is true, but it becomes a detriment as far as speed is concerned. For all that advantage, there is a lot more code to run through to execute the same ASP page than you have to execute in the PHP engine for an equivalent PHP page. PHP is the quick-and-dirty type of solution, the one to get the job done. And though a lot of robustness has been added to it since its 2.0 and 3.0 days, it still retains that core optimized high-speed approach.
Speed is not the only consideration. Memory usage is also important.
Security. ASP.NET runs on IIS, which has been compromised innumerable times, as evidenced by IT news reports every other week. It has become such a liability, in fact, that in spite of all the marketing dollars spent on it, many IT professionals refuse to have their networks exposed with an IIS Web server. PHP, however, works with Apache, which has a proven track record of speed, reliability, and hardened security. Check www.securityfocus.com for more information.
Cross-platform applicability. ASP.NET runs on IIS and is starting to run on Apache, which can run on a whole host of platforms. PHP has been designed to work with Apache from the beginning, so you have many proven and reliable server platforms to choose from.
Open source opportunity. Open source is not just some philosophical torch idealistic programmers, or companies wanting to save a few bucks on licensing costs, are carrying. When you're dealing with bugs in the software itself, open source can be a serious godsend.
In either case, with PHP or ASP.NET, you have a large user base using the software and possibly encountering bugs. With ASP.NET, those bugs have to go through a bureaucratic process to get acknowledged, fixed, tested, and rolled out in a new patch or release. PHP fixes, however, can get fixed quickly and rereleased. Anyone who has watched open-source development knows new releases and patches often come out in days rather than in weeks or months, as with commercial software. If that's not fast enough, you can always fix a problem yourself if you have to."
(This article was originally written for oracle.com, but is not available there now for some reason.) - SpikeX, on 02/05/2008, -1/+13This article is so biased it's not even funny. "Straightforward" my ass.
- dualboy24, on 02/05/2008, -3/+15Well .NET really has some nice advantages, but at the same time PHP has a huge amount of free and open applications you can download and modify. I am sure there are open source .NET apps too, just a fraction compaired to PHP though. But still having your choice of C#, VB, etc is really fun sounding plus the nice IDE.
- tempusrob, on 02/05/2008, -0/+11And security, and execution speed, and library features, and documentation, and...
- NoNamesLeft, on 02/05/2008, -3/+12"Jason Sexton has been working as a developer in a professional capacity for 20 years and is both a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer and a Sun Certified Java Programmer..."
I can't really take this as an unbiased comparison with qualifications like that. I would probably pimp the language I use to make money out of. Give me a neutral comparison and maybe I'll take it at face value. - inactive, on 02/05/2008, -2/+10I actually got my hands dirty with PHP because wordpress kind of forces you to if you want to use it seriously. PHP seems to do everything I need it to do so I don't get too caught up in the server side scripting debate. I must say, that it's a very well written article and worth a look if your situation demands it. :)
- vedema, on 02/05/2008, -0/+6...how is it a "straightforward comparison" when the author shows bias leaning toward ASP.NET in the description?
- CraigJ, on 02/05/2008, -0/+5Let's see... Linux + MySQL + Apache + PHP @ $0 + tons of free tools, or Windows server + SQL Server + ASPX @ thousands in licensing + Visual Studio... hmmm...
When PHP 5 came out, I bailed on ASP and haven't looked back. I have yet to find anything I can not do with PHP and MySQL. - epalla, on 02/05/2008, -0/+4Language vs. Framework, this is apples to oranges.
- sirhomer, on 02/05/2008, -0/+4You can gain the source code of any .NET application, compiled or otherwise, using Reflector. http://www.aisto.com/roeder/dotnet/
- chazcross, on 02/05/2008, -0/+4Why are you putting unfinished and untested files on a production site?
- harlowsmonkeys, on 02/06/2008, -0/+4I'm confused. Why is that comment being dugg down? My understanding is that JSP is conceptually a lot closer to ASP than PHP is, so if one is comparing open technologies to ASP, it would be useful to include JSP in the comparison.
- estvir, on 02/05/2008, -3/+7Pfft, real men don't care about all that! They use a small magnet to code directly to the hard drive!
- Phocion55, on 02/05/2008, -2/+6my_only_gripe_with_php_is_functions_that_look_like_this()
- inactive, on 02/05/2008, -3/+7i was going to digg you up untill i got till your last line.
- tagnarth, on 02/05/2008, -0/+3I started out programming PHP for 6 years. Went from 3 to 5 and then I switched to ASP.NET at work. I still maintain PHP sites outside of work. I like both and to me it really depends on what kind of application I'm writing. If I want quick database administration type applications ASP.NET wins hands down. It takes only minutes to set them up. No coding needed.
If I need a more dynamic and heavily template driven site I'd use PHP.
When it comes down to Languages I love C#. PHP has a great C style syntax but being so loosely typed allows for users to easily include bugs and security issues in their code. - zen6ox, on 02/05/2008, -0/+3Even if your not running Active Directory Domain, or use Sharepoint, IIS cannot be installed on Windows XP Home without the use of a windows 2000 cd (http://adamv.com/dev/articles/iis-on-xp-home). Where php can run on apache on any pc.
- coldcoffee, on 02/05/2008, -0/+3Did anyone ever think of 'code creation time' or 'maintainability' as criteria for this pissing contest? Funny that 10 years after it became a standard for all other languages, ASP.Net is still trying to put together a MVC framework. PHP(Cake), Ruby(Rails) kick the snot out of ASP.Net.
- fweeky, on 02/05/2008, -0/+3"The PHP language is archaic and many times cryptic; the language itself hasn’t been updated any more than PERL has."
Um, what's archaic and cryptic about PHP? There's plenty bad about it, sure, but cryptic? If anything I'd say it's too simple.
And it's "Perl", you moron. perldoc -q perl:
'But never write "PERL", because perl is not an acronym, apocryphal folklore and post-facto expansions notwithstanding'
Makes a handy shibboleth; I always tend to switch off after seeing someone capitalize it. Almost as bad as calling it Pearl. - mrweasel, on 02/05/2008, -3/+6ASP.NET is mostly good, but the lack of a real good templating system is a big drawback. Things like Smarty for PHP is a lot better than the code-behind concept in .NET.
A big problem is also that ASP.NET is so closely tied to IIS, which is a limited webserver, when you worked with Apache. It can do the same things, generally speaking, it even have some features that Apache doesn't have, but the lack of Apache modules a big deal for me. Most of the things that are simple configuration issues become small coding projects with IIS.
Being so closely tied to Windows, IIS and Visual Studio also means that even though Mono is available, I wouldn't want to use it. ASP.NET requires a lot of code to do very little, you just don't notice, because Visual Studio generates this code for you.
Personally I don't like the post back system in ASP.NET, the view-state concept is in my view a bad idea. It makes it easier to create webapplications that look like real apps, but that's also the problem, http where never design to support "real application". I guess my problem with it is that we end up writing webapplication which doesn't follow the general http/html termonology.
That being said, C# is a really nice language and ASP.NET allows you to slam together webapplications faster than anything else. However, just like PHP, just slamming together applications often result in pretty bad code. Much of the "badness" in PHP is really because a lot of not-good developers and I see a lot of the same with ASP.NET, except that very few people seem to care about the low quality products that is being produced. - PleaseJustDie, on 02/05/2008, -0/+3I program in both PHP and ASP.NET, php in my off time because I have other projects on a linux server, ASP.NET professionally because the company I work for has a windows server. Honestly it really depends on what I'm doing. If I want to do a huge number of different tasks one one page, I'd rather use PHP, however if I need to have one task move from page to page and perform complex tasks in the transitions, ASP.NET hands down.
Both languages have their strengths and their weaknesses as well as the developer's personal preferences for each. They are both solid and versatile, however I personally think some tasks are performed better by one than the other. I also prefer debugging in .NET to php. Since with .NET I can walk line by line through code to see what its doing and why its not doing what it should be. - lunarcanary, on 02/05/2008, -2/+5More proof that digg users know nothing about programming.
Terrible article. Gullible people. - wickedlogic, on 02/05/2008, -0/+3Hardly straightforward, and yes I'm a php fan. PHP has hacks in it (most of it), but I've built enterprise apps on those stable hacks. This was a poor comparison article. How about -3 for asp.net running on *nix or outside of IIS, right tools for the right job. Hosting on windows has no 'right job'....
- vibrokatana, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2From firsthand experience ASP is a royal pain in the ass for certain things. Simple adding a .cs file to certain directories causes it to compile it whenever the page is accessed - even if THE CLASS IS NOT USED. Which results in many pretty compile errors for your visitors to view while they can't use the actual site.
- spheenik, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2What a biased article. Comparing the FRAMEWORK asp.net to the PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE php. Someone should slap the author on the back of his head, so maybe those "certified engineer" neurons come back online!
No one said ASP.NET sucks (except for the fact that it's from MS, imho, but technically it's good), but this was as biased as Gartner studies finding Windows way more secure than Linux where MS itself is the sponsor. - kirushik, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2Ruby on Rails, anyone?:)
Cost =$0
Support = Google groups (Almost instant answers even on tricky and uncommon questions)
Language = Full-functional blog in 50 lines
Security = Built-in self-checks, frequent free updates, open source
Speed and Efficiency = so-so. Sometimes it's even faster than PHP, sometimes it's not.
Hosting costs = It's already on the Bluehost I've used to work with.
Guess who is sucking today? - userini, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2This article is completely ludicrous, because you simply cannot compare PHP and ASP.net without considering the platforms they are run on and the associated tools they are used with. That would be like talking about Java as a server-side language and never mentioning J2EE and the myriad things that go into it.
I'm not trying to argue that either technology is superior to the other, but that we should have a real shootout. Put LAMP against Windows-dotNet, and analyze them side by side. I'll bet you the idea that ASP.net is "free" just like PHP will vanish like a mirage, and most of the other categories of comparison will need some hard debate before a point can be given to either side. - chazcross, on 02/05/2008, -1/+3and what is wrong with IIS?
- erikerikerik, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2I have to agree, while I love asp net if I'm doing from the ground up work, most of time I'm not. PHP offers a wealth of out of the box software for free. cant beat that.
- chris9902, on 02/05/2008, -2/+4You don't programme in asp.net
Also your post was obviously heavily biased nonsense by a Linux fanboy. - santasing, on 02/05/2008, -4/+6I don't think ASP won vs JSP or whatever. I like JSP because it is so extensible. Hell, my JSP files hardly have any logic in them as I mostly use templates. I think ASP is good for someone new to programming, but for heavy apps, i.e. something that is internationalized, free from dependencies etc. JSP wins hands down.
- Otto, on 02/05/2008, -1/+3Nonsense. Real programmers code using butterflies.
See http://xkcd.com/378/ - vibrokatana, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2With those dots come a listing of methods in visual studio. Of course you can get something similar with PDT in eclipse, but it isn't really the same.
- chrisjk, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2I'm sticking with PHP, I like to be able to host web apps on multiple platforms. And, from what i've seen, PHP seems more widely used.
- dontera, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2Any tool is hard to use if you are unschooled in its use.
- drjones78, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2Python
- vibrokatana, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2I wasn't, I was on my own server and some idiot looked at what I was doing and thought they would share it with everyone. Then I had a horde of people complaining when the development site was down... Dumb marketing people.
- philchau, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2First of all it's ASP.Net and second of all there IS a Linux release of it, and it's called Mono.
- chrispr, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2Any PHP cert is going to be a joke.
- santasing, on 02/05/2008, -1/+3I will give you quicker development time. That's it. You cannot touch Java when it comes to scalability, reusability, performance (esp. in clustered environments).
- cplusplus, on 02/05/2008, -1/+3Notice how the URL for that page ends in .aspx ?!
Say no more. - Stupidumb, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2So true. You, on the other hand, obviously know your *****.
- PleaseJustDie, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2Emacs has a command for that.
- boxybrzown, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2The scoring on this is retarded. Why would you give each language a 0 or 1 score on features instead of rating each feature from 1 - 10? Then you wouldn't have PHP scoring a ridiculous zero on security.
- RichGC, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2Linux webservers > Windows Webservers, so I lean towards PHP as its very easy to setup.
While IIS6 is fairly good, the fact that Windows updates come out regular and require a server reboot means I have to schedule down time and often have to reboot them at obscure hours.
On the the other hand Linux webservers often only require a quick service restart and so have some great uptime. -
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