ASP versus PHP

Both ASP and PHP are popular programming languages that are being used for
developing websites. Both the languages are meant to build dynamic websites
that can interact with database and exchange information. ASP or Active Server
Pages is a Microsoft product and requires IIS (Internet Information Server)
as the web server which to run on Windows Platform. PHP or Hypertext Preprocessors
was developed by Rasmus Lerdorf who pioneered the parsing language that was
later on modified by different people. PHP was developed for ‘Unix’ & ‘Linux’ servers
to run using Apache web server, but now installers of PHP are is also available
for Windows server.

Difference Between ASP and PHP

Cost Factor

Running ASP programs costs higher as it requires IIS installed
on a Windows platform server which is not free. On the other hand, PHP programs
run Linux using Apache as web server, which is free. Moreover, the connectivity
of the database is very costly in ASP as you have to buy MS-SQL which is a
Microsoft product. PHP generally uses MySQL which is freely available.

Speed

When it comes to speed, PHP is much faster than ASP.
As a matter of fact, PHP codes run much faster than those of ASP. This is
because while PHP codes run on their own memory space, ASP can’t as it
is built on COM based architecture which is an overhead for the server.

Platform Compatibility

PHP enjoys the flexibility of running
on various platforms such as Linux, Unix, Windows and Solaris. However, ASP
is primarily
related with Windows platform with ASP-Apache installed on the server.

Additional Cost

Since PHP is an open source matter, lots of codes
can be found in open source forums. As a result, it does cost anything. Moreover,
various tools used in PHP are available for free in different websites. On
the top if it, PHP has built-in features such as FTP, email from a webpage
and encryption mechanisms. On the other hand, ASP doesn’t have these
features built-in and hence, some additional components are required which
results in additional expenditure as well.

Base Language

PHP is basically, based on C++ language and the syntax
used in PHP is quite similar to C and C++. Again, quite a few programmers are
familiar and comfortable with C++ language. C language still holds the predominance
when it comes to web designing and development. Hence, many programmers would
find PHP pretty easy to learn and implement as well. On the other hand, ASP
has lots of syntax that are based on Visual Basic. It is again a product of
Microsoft. However, it varies from programmer to programmer regarding the language
they are comfortable with.

Database Connectivity

Although PHP is most compatible with
MySQL database, it has the flexibility of connecting to various other databases
also. On the
other hand, ASP primarily uses MS-SQL.

So Who Is The Winner?

Both PHP & ASP are scripting languages of choice, and are equally being
used to deploy database driven feature rich websites. It’s tough to say
that who is the winner as they being equally used deploying websites. But considering
list of differences stated above PHP is more of choice to deploy a cost affective
dynamic website.