PHP vs ASP

PHP vs. ASP – The Battle of Popular Programming Languages

When looking at PHP vs. ASP, you’re really comparing two of the most popular programming languages for Dynamic Websites. Both can interact with the databases and help with the exchange of information.

ASP or Active Servers Pages is a Microsoft product and is used with ISS or Internet Information Servers. This programming language runs on Microsoft Servers.

PHP or PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor comes from Rasmus Lerdof. It started as just a parsing language created by Lerdof, but later was modified by a few different people. This programming language works on Linux and UNIX servers. It also has an NT server version.

Differences between PHP vs. ASP

One of the glaring differences between PHP vs. ASP is the platform compatibility. PHP works on a number of different platforms including Linux, UNX, Solaris and Windows, while ASP works mainly on Windows platforms. You can use ASP on Linux if ASP-Apache is installed on your server.

Cost

Another huge difference is the cost of the two. Since IIS is required to run ASP and IIS isn’t free. However, PHP runs on Linux, which is free, so there’s no cost associated with it. Even connecting the database with ASP can be expensive because it uses MS-SQL. PHP uses MySQL, for the most part, which is an open source choice and free to use.

Base Language

The Base Language is another difference between ASP and PHP. PHP uses C++ as the base language, while ASP uses a Visual Basic syntax used by most Microsoft products. PHP’s base language is very similar to C/C++, which is considered the best programming language by many programmers.

Speed

Looking at the speed will show another difference. ASP and PHP don’t run at the same speed. PHP is known to be a little faster because it runs on its own memory space. ASP, on the other hand, is built on COM based architecture, which is a bit slower.

Additional Costs

PHP provides many of the necessary tools free of charge, while ASP provides many tools, but they come with an additional cost. PHP has many in-built features, such as email from a web page, ftp and encryption mechanisms. ASP, on the other hand, doesn’t have many built-in features and some additional components may be required at an additional cost.

Which is Better Between PHP vs. ASP?

After understanding some of the major differences, it’s easy to see which is the better choice between PHP and ASP. If you don’t want to pay for anything, PHP is the obvious choice. However, if you prefer to use Microsoft products and a Windows server ASP may be the better choice for you.

Both programming languages have their advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes it comes down to the preference of the programmer, but other times it’s about what type of hosting you prefer. If you plan to use Linux or UNIX servers, you will most likely want to use PHP. It will be supported by all hosting companies offering Linux and UNIX servers, while ASP may not be supported.

The Project Matters

Of course, anytime you want to choose a programming language, content management system, database or any other tool necessary for your project, you need to figure out which will benefit you the most. Most discussion boards use PHP because it’s preferred for this type of project, while many e-commerce applications prefer ASP.

This doesn’t mean that ASP cannot provide a good choice for a discussion board and PHP cannot provide a good e-commerce solution. These are just preferences from programmers working with these types of projects.

Hosting for PHP and ASP

Since PHP works on Linux and UNIX servers, which are the most popular in the hosting world, PHP is the easier of the two programming languages to find hosting for. In order to use ASP on these high quality servers, you will need ASP-Apache, which not all hosting companies support.

Whether you prefer PHP or ASP, ITX Design can help you with the best hosting possible. We offer shared, VPS and dedicated server hosting with full support for PHP programming language and ASP-Apache. However, using our hosting with PHP will save you money because you won’t have to pay for any additional features like you will if you prefer to use ASP.

The battle between PHP vs. ASP doesn’t have a clear winner, as they both work great for different applications. It will depend on the type of hosting and your project, which one will work best for you. If you’re not sure which to use, contact our support team and we can help you with both hosting and a recommendation between PHP and ASP.