While a web developer has a variety of programming languages to select from, the web development industry is ruled by two competing language giants: ASP.NET and PHP. Currently, there is much discussion about the similarities and differences between these two languages. These languages are used by several successful organizations, including Facebook, Google, and Twitter. People in the web programming profession have differing views on which is the best career option.
Both have recognition and are excellent nominees for choosing a career. It all comes down to your eagerness for technology and which technology is most convenient for you to study. So, today, we will discuss PHP vs ASP.NET in detail. But, before that, let’s have a look at the overviews of these two languages to see which is a better fit for you.
Overview Of PHP
The Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) is a server-side scripting language extensively used in web development. It is open-source and free. According to some surveys, PHP is utilized by 78.1 per cent of all websites, including high-traffic sites like Wikipedia and Facebook.
Anyone can benefit from learning PHP, but those interested in web development will find it especially useful.
PHP is compatible with all major operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS. PHP is supported by most web servers, such as Apache, IIS, etc.
Moreover, PHP allows you to customize your WordPress site more easily, a task your WordPress agency can handle on a regular basis. Other benefits include excellent documentation and online support that allow beginners to learn PHP quickly.
PHP: Pros and Cons
Pros:
- free & open-source
- easy to learn & use
- Server-side
- Good for small and medium-size projects
- Old language and many programmers know it and use it
- Good for database functioning & communication
Cons:
- Not suitable for every project
- Error handling is poor
- Run a bit slow
- It has some debugging issues
- Not for desktop app development
Overview Of ASP.NET
ASP.NET is an open-source web development framework on the .NET (dotNET) platform. Microsoft released it in 2002. Version 1.0 of ASP.NET lets developers construct dynamic online services, apps, and sites. The framework is designed to work with the HTTP protocol, the standard for all web applications.
ASP.NET is the successor of ASP (Active Server Pages) and represents a substantial improvement in terms of capability and flexibility. It’s a .NET platform extension with extra libraries and tools designed exclusively for online development, such as web applications and websites.
While ASP.NET is still supported and updated by Microsoft, the company’s current focus is on developing a new cross-platform version.
ASP .Net: Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Provides good flexibility in the project and scaling web applications
- It can work well with other frameworks and languages.
- Good for work on Windows
- Bettor error fixing possibilities
- Good User Interaction possibilities
- Easily to set up
- Fast development process
- Good for web apps development
- Easy management
- Rich tools
- Good choice for medium and large scale projects
Cons:
- Works mainly with Windows.
- Small community
- It is not the easiest one to learn.
PHP vs ASP.NET: What Are The Differences
Speed and Performance
It is one of the important aspects to consider for PHP vs ASP.NET. Before we start discussing the speed and performance of a website, let us first state a truth that is equally crucial in controlling applications’ speed. There’s a long-held belief that an application’s speed and online performance are dependent on the programming language used. However, this isn’t entirely accurate. The performance of any framework is determined by how the code is written. Choosing a programming language based on its performance in various contexts is preferable.
Both PHP and ASP.NET can access files, and the speed of all of these operations are highly dependent on the database server, the end user’s system, bandwidth, and other factors. It is a common belief that the speed of ASP.NET websites is greater than that of PHP websites. In addition, ASP.NET supports parallel programming, which allows for continuous coding structures. PHP, on the other hand, does not allow threading at all.
Security
ASP.NET and PHP both provide distinct security features to developers, but in different ways. SQL injection is a built-in security feature in ASP.NET, whereas PHP provides tools for securely structuring applications.
To put it another way, ASP.NET is automated and does the job for you, whereas PHP merely provides the tools. So, if you’re wondering if ASP.NET or PHP is better for security, ASP.NET is the way to go.
Market Share
The usage and market share of ASP.NET and PHP are important to consider when discussing php vs asp.net languages. According to a study, PHP is more widely used than ASP.NET.
Websites built with PHP have been ranked among the top ten thousand, one hundred thousand, and one million websites.
Websites Built using Asp.net and PHP
PHP-based websites are among the top-ranked websites. Here is the list of websites built using PHP and ASP.NET.
Websites Created Using PHP
- WordPress.com
- Wikipedia
- Yahoo!
- Flickr
- iStockPhoto
- Mailchimp
- Tumblr
- Baidu
Websites Created Using ASP.NET
- Microsoft
- GoDaddy
- StackOverflow
- DELL
- WildTangent
- Visual Studio
- TacoBell
Some of the websites on both lists are quite popular, but the bulk of well-known websites are PHP-based.
Support and Resources
It is one of the important aspects to consider for PHP vs ASP.NET. PHP is free and open-source. It has a considerably larger development community than ASP.NET. Despite having a smaller community than PHP, the ASP.NET community is made up of dedicated engineers that are caring and helpful to other community members.
In contrast, PHP is such a widely used language that many helpful developers active on various forums are more than eager to provide free advice, direction, or description to those who ask. The PHP community is always coming up with new ways to solve problems that arise during the development of PHP web projects.
Platform Dependency
ASP.NET does not provide much flexibility. PHP is platform-independent and can work on any platform, including UNIX, Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. On the other hand, ASP.NET only supports the Windows platform. It is the reason behind PHP’s wide audience and strong community. So, PHP is the clear winner of the round PHP vs ASP.NET: Platform dependency.
Tools and Editors
PHP programmers have access to a variety of editors. Text editors like Notepad++ and VIM are popular among PHP developers, but there are also a few decent and free IDEs available, such as Eclipse.
Most ASP.NET developers use Microsoft’s Visual Studio Editor to create.NET apps, which is backed up by several IDEs that may be expensive. ASP.NET provides many tools and built-in capabilities that enable developers to construct websites with ease.
PHP vs ASP.NET: Head To Head Comparison
| Parameters | PHP | ASP.NET |
| Created By | Rasmus Lerdorf | Microsoft |
| Support | Small to medium size applications. | Large to medium size applications. |
| Community | Large | Small |
| Security | Fewer security features. | High-Security |
| Cost | Freely available | License cost attached |
| Platform Dependency | Platform-independent | ASP.NET only supports the Windows platform. |
| Market Share | PHP is more widely used than ASP.NET. | Less market share. |
| Type | Server-side scripting language. | Web application framework. |
| Complexity | Easy to learn. | Difficult to learn. |
| Popularity | More Popular | Less Popular |
Conclusion
To conclude, when choosing a career path between PHP vs ASP.NET, we can say that PHP and ASP.NET are both winners. So, you can make your decision based on the technology you like to use. Whatever language you choose, rest assured that both are in-demand and significant in the IT world and that many businesses and organizations want software solutions built on any of the two, so you might have a bright career with plenty of room for advancement.
Moreover, if you need PHP assignment help, you can discuss your requirements with our experts and get the best solution at an affordable price.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is PHP easier than ASP.NET?
PHP is a lot easier than ASP.NET. ASP.NET is very difficult to understand for beginners and takes a long time to learn. On the other hand, PHP is easier to understand and takes less time to learn.
Is ASP.NET different from C#?
ASP.NET is simply a web delivery mechanism that uses either VB.NET or C# in the background. On the other hand, C# is a programming language that runs WPF, Winforms and Silverlight, in addition to ASP.NET.