| | ASP.NET | PHP | Comments |
Latest Stable Version | 4.0 | 5.3.3 | As of 19 Aug 2010 |
License | MS EULA | PHP License v3.01 | |
Price | · ASP.NET - .NET Framework is free. So ASP.NET also free · Web Server – IIS – Not Free. OS cost applicable · OS – Windows Server – Not Free | . PHP – Free · Web Server – Free · OS – Linux is free, Windows is costly | PHP can be installed on any OS and Web server. But ASP.NET is recommended for IIS only (even though ports to few web servers available) |
Third Party Hosting Price | Cost involved | Cost Involved | Both are not costly but if you compare, PHP is found little bit cheaper |
Development Cost | Developer cost Involved Visual Studio Express Editions are free Rapid-Application-Development Model. So development takes less time | Developer Cost Involved Free/Open Source IDEs available Much coding involved | Both are same but ASP.NET is more on Rapid-Application-Development and PHP is more on Coding |
Cross Platform | Yes | Yes | Whatever server side language you use, browsers render only as HTML. But development is not cross-platform even though ASP.NET got ports for Linux available |
Code Portability | Partial | Yes | For php, a code written on Linux/Apache will work on Windows or any OS/Web Server. But .NET, even though we have ports available, you will require some tweaks to make it run |
Cloud Feasibility | Possible | Possible | Additionally, for ASP.NET -SQL Azure also available for database hosting |
Mode of source | Closed Source | Open Source | Application developers have no benefits for either it is closed or open UPDATE: Microsoft also opened .NET framework code for reference. Not that it is just for reference. You cannot do anything except reading. A real open source must be able to download, make amendments, re-compile. You cannot make your own .NET versions. |
Promoted by | Microsoft | PHP Community | |
Customer Support by Owner | Yes | No | |
Security Fixes | Auto Update – part of OS | Need to update separately when available | Both parties release fixes for bugs and security issues instantly |
Developer Help | Community | Community | Both technologies got fans worldwide. They will provide help and guidance through forums, mail lists, news groups etc. |
Languages | · C# · VB.NET · Jscript etc. | PHP | |
Database | Any Database Good fit: Microsoft SQL Server | Any Database Good fit: MySQL | Supports most of the databases |
Frameworks / OOPs | · There is an inbuilt framework (called web forms framework) available which will force developers to use OOPs | You can write both procedural and OOPs based code | |
MVC | Microsoft ASP.NET MVC | Symfony | |
Development IDE | · Recommended: Microsoft Visual Studio · Any IDE | · Recommended: Zend Studio · Any IDE | Even notepad can be used for coding. PHP is more easy for that, but if you can afford Visual Studio, then ASP.NET |
ORM | · ADO.NET Entity Framework · NHibernate | · Doctrine | |
Templating | · NVelocity | · Smarty | |
Extensibility | · ASP.NET uses Microsoft.NET framework. So you can make use of any functionality available on .NET framework · HTTPHandlers · HTTPModules · ISASP Extentions etc. | · PECL – PHP Extension Community Library · | |
Easy to learn | Yes | Yes | Personally I found PHP to be easier for a beginner to learn programming |
Recommended for Huge systems? | Yes | No | As per my analysis, PHP is recommended for small-to-medium projects and ASP.NET and JSP for medium-to-big applications |
Content Management Systems | · DotNetNuke · SharePoint · N2CMS … | · Typo3 · Joomla · Magento … | Wide verity of options |
Advancement | Growing very fast | Growing with limited speed | Micorosft’s team is keen to develop and integrate new features. But since PHP is promoted by community, it takes time to reach that level |
Backward Compatibility | Old code will work on new framework versions without change | Old code might need tweaks to make it work on latest versions | |
Security | IIS must improved from past and now a days it is one of the secure web servers | Major web servers are secure | ASP.NET, PHP, Oss and its servers are mostly secure. Now developer need to make sure his coding is secure. |
Performance | Faster | Faster for small programs and slower for medium-to-big programs | Very basic old argument – ASP.NET is compiled and PHP is interpreted (line by line compilation and execution) |
Deployment | Multiple methods available Eg: Publish, XCopy, MSI | You need to copy/paste code to server somehow (eg: ftp) | |
Some useful features | · WCF (Windows Communication Foundation), Web Service, .NET Remoting etc. · ASP.NET AJAX · Built-in Caching features | · Web Service · Third party Ajax libraries · Third party Caching libraries | |