ASP.NET vs PHP: A Detailed Comparison

ASP.NET vs PHP is one of the most popular comparisons that web app developers come across while choosing the technology for their client’s project. ASP.NET is a popular Microsoft framework while PHP is a server-side scripting language. Both these technologies have their own comprehensive tool support and broad bases that are beneficial for creating scalable and robust projects. To know more about these technologies and which one to choose, let’s go through this blog.

1. What is ASP.NET?

ASP.NET is one of the most popular web development platforms. Which offers a comprehensive software infrastructure, smooth application development life cycle and a programming model along with different other services that are necessary when it comes to creating unique and robust web, mobile, and desktop applications. This platform was first released in January 2002. It is the successor to Microsoft’s technology known as Active Server Pages (ASP).

ASP.NET is known as a language-independent platform which means developers can easily utilize any software development language that is .NET-supported. Besides this, the two most widely used .NET programming languages in the development world are VB.NET and C#. Here, VB.NET is a programming language that is based on Visual Basic, whereas C# programming language was introduced with the .NET framework. ASP.NET Core also supports the dependency injection. Through it, one can achieve Inversion of Control between classes and their dependencies.

ASP.NET is a popular web framework that offers excellent support for JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. In addition to this, as this framework is developed on Common Language Runtime (CLR), it enables the software development experts to write code with the use of languages that are supported by .NET. Because of its popularity and unique features, this framework is used by .NET development companies to develop dynamic web pages in a lightweight and faster manner. This approach enables the development team to combine server code with HTML. This means that software developers can write elegant web applications that offer the latest web standards. In addition to this, ASP.NET also helps in adding links and videos to social media sites.

2. Advantages of ASP.NET

Here are some of the major advantages of ASP.NET –

2.1 Separation of Concern

ASP.NET, a web development platform that follows the basic features of MVC architecture, because of which separate process, input, and output of the applications is possible for developers. MVC, the three-tier architecture, has interconnected parts and has the capability to handle some major software development aspects.

2.2 Out-of-the-box Features

ASP.NET is a framework that comes with the capability to deliver excellent scalability and performance. It also enables the developers to use its best features such as early binding, just-in-time compilation, caching services, and native optimization for creating unique applications. Besides this, these amazing features of ASP.NET help web app developers to improve the performance level for the codes that aren’t able to be interpreted like the code in the traditional ASP pages.

2.3 Reduces Coding Time

This web application framework helps in reducing the website development time. Besides, this platform comes with different types of code reviews, which means that there is no chance that a net developer will write bad code as the code reviews will help in improving the code quality.

2.4 Power and Flexibility

ASP.NET is a framework for web solutions which is also known for its flexibility and power because this framework is based on common language runtime. Besides this, as it is a language-independent platform, it has the capability to allow the web developers to choose the language they want to use and are comfortable with for their applications.

2.5 Toolbox

Another benefit of using the .NET framework is that it offers an amazing toolbox that is because of its integration with Visual Studio. The ASP.NET toolbox plays a vital role when it comes to developing web applications that are robust and unique. In addition to this, the toolbox also comes with different monitoring tools like automatic deployment of applications and drag-and-drop server controls.

3. What is PHP?

PHP was initially brought into the market as a small open-source project. But with time it evolved into an open source development framework and now this programming language offers integration with various popular databases. The code written in PHP is processed by a PHP interpreter and then it is implemented in the web server as a module. Here, the web server combines expected and interpreted PHP code.

Besides this, PHP is known as smugly zippy when it comes to execution. The reason behind this is that the execution in PHP works smoother when the code is compiled via the Apache module on the Unix side. PHP is one of the programming languages that enable support for major protocols like LDAP, POP3, and IMAP.

PHP is an ecosystem that offers added support for distributed object architectures and Java which makes multiple-tier development a reality. In addition to this, PHP web development technology offers a lot of open-source and free libraries. It is also known as an internet-aware system that comes with built-in modules for accessing various database servers, web servers and FTP servers.

4. Advantages of PHP

Some of the major benefits of PHP are –

4.1 Extremely Flexible

PHP, a server-side scripting language, is highly flexible for an ongoing project or creating a new app from scratch. Flexibility in any scripting language is essential as it can offer support to the language whenever there is a change in the functionality during the project course. Besides this, one of the most important reasons behind  PHP development is that it comes with the ability to make changes even in the middle of the project. This feature helps the developers with a lot of time that goes behind making improvements after the entire application is developed. 

4.2 Easy and Simple to Learn

PHP is known as the easiest scripting language in comparison to other web application development languages. It doesn’t require intensive studying. Besides this, when it comes to syntax in PHP programming, it is well-organized and logical. The command functions in PHP are very easy to understand for any developer and this is why it is said that when it comes to optimizing or creating an application, PHP is the best choice.

4.3 Efficient Performance

PHP has the potential to turn into a language that has excellent potential. But it also might depend on the web developer’s codes. If the code written by the developer is scalable and supported languages are used for creating larger applications, PHP can be a very efficient choice.

4.4 Easy Integration and Compatibility

PHP is one of the most popularly used web development languages and the main reason behind it is compatibility. This platform is highly compatible with a majority of the operating systems available in the market. Because of its easy integration and compatible nature, it enables the applications to run on various platforms such as Linux, UNIX, and Solaris. It can also be integrated with other technologies like Java.

4.5 Cost-Efficient

As PHP is an open-source platform, it is completely free for developers to use. This means when the developers want to use this language for creating an application, they don’t have to purchase any license or software. It has open-source libraries which means that PHP can work efficiently and without any cost with other databases like Apache, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.

5. Websites Built Using ASP.NET

Here is the list of websites that are created using ASP.NET –

• StackOverflow
• Microsoft
• GoDaddy
• DELL
• Visual Studio
• WildTangent
• Diply.com
• TacoBell.com

6. Websites Built using PHP

Here is the list of websites that are created using PHP –

• Facebook
• Wikipedia
• WordPress.com
• Flickr
• Yahoo!
• iStockPhoto
• Tumblr
• Mailchimp

7. Difference Between ASP.NET vs PHP

Let’s go through the major differences between ASP.NET vs PHP –

7.1 Type

ASP.NET is a very popular web applications development framework that was developed by Microsoft. While PHP is one of the best server-side scripting languages and it was developed by Rasmus Lerdorf.

7.2 Support

ASP.NET is a framework that has great community support and consists of highly dedicated developers who are there to support other developers all over the world who work hard to create unique web applications for businesses. On the other hand, PHP has got a larger community than ASP.NET and the reason behind it is that PHP is an open-source language. But still, the developers using PHP face some issues that the community experts are there to resolve.

7.3 Cost Solution

The cost of any technology is the first thing that any developer or business organization that hires a team of experts thinks about. The reason behind it is that the cost of technologies plays a crucial role in creating software development projects. Here, when we compare all the things of ASP.NET and PHP, ASP.NET is considered a bit costly framework as it comes with web hosting fees and some other functionality costs. While on the other hand, PHP is completely free to use.

7.4 Security

Security is an important factor to consider when it comes to choosing app development technology. This is the aspect where there is a huge difference between ASP.NET vs PHP. ASP.NET is a framework that comes with built-in security features like SQL injection. Whereas PHP is a technology that comes with different tools that can help PHP developers to create applications.

7.5 Speed

When it comes to the speed of the platforms, ASP.NET is a bit slow and the reason behind it is that this platform is developed on a COM-based system which means that it needs different storage space for the programs. On the other hand, PHP enables programs to run on their own memory space. In other words, PHP doesn’t require any other resources to execute the programs efficiently.

7.6 Customization

When it comes to customization, ASP.NET is less prone to it. But PHP, unlike many other programming languages, enables easy customization of the app development process in the middle of the development process.

8. Conclusion

As seen in this blog post, the ASP.NET has an amazing set of libraries that comes with many different features. Some of them are Polly, Fluent Validation, and SignalR used for web app development. When the developers are working with ASP.NET, they can write code in languages like VB, C#, and F#. On the other hand, PHP framework is known as one of the best and most widely used programming languages that help developers create unique applications for different types of businesses. PHP comes with a large community of developers who can start working with PHP in very less time as it is an easy-to-learn language.

Basically, when it comes to choosing between ASP.NET and PHP performance, though both of these technologies are efficient for creating web apps, the right choice can be made after knowing the type of project, its budget, business requirements, and required functionality. This means that both PHP and ASP.NET come with their own advantages and disadvantages, but using any one of these is completely up to the developer’s skills and other factors.