Introduction
I do not want to call this as a comparison but a list of equivalent features. You can find a lot of links if you search on the internet regarding 'which is good and which is bad'. Here, I would like to give the same weightage to both technologies as both have its advantages and disadvantages.
Background
Well, I made this list when I was thinking about the right technology for one of my latest requirements. I wanted to make something for a presentation as a part of my Architecture Design job.
Here Goes the List...
The choice of technology is completely dependent on the requirements. The factors that influence the decision of choice are based on the following:
- Complexity of Business logic
- Density of contents
- Expected number of Hits (if it is a website)
- Budget
- Size of project, etc.
There are multiple options available for many features. The major ones are listed which are my recommendations.
| 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 to be a 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 is 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. Note 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 |
| 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 Extensions, 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 UPDATE: If you think about Facebook, please understand that:
- it uses a re-written PHP and a
- transformer+compiler called HipHop which transforms PHP code to highly optimized C++ code and then compiles with gcc. We are talking here about the PHP we get for application developers from PHP.NET (as it is).
|
| Content Management Systems |
- DotNetNuke
- SharePoint
- N2CMS …
|
| Wide variety 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 be improved from the 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 developers need to make sure their 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 E.g.: Publish, XCopy, MSI | You need to copy/paste code to server somehow (e.g.: 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
| |
I do not claim all I stated above are true, but all that I believe to be true. Also this list is in no way complete. It is time consuming to build a full list, so I included the major points only.
Correct me if any point is wrong or if I missed any important points.
History
- 19th August 2010: Initial version
