Much like the unfair race between a rabbit and a turtle, there is an unfair ongoing race between two technologies in the tech world, between ASP.NET and PHP. It’s considered unfair by a good majority of the developer community due to the fact that ASP.NET, one of the most popular Microsoft technology solutions, is a web framework using C#, a full-featured language. PHP, on the other hand, is just an open source programming language. 

Before making a decision, it’s wise to measure the benefits of each. 

Here is a brief intro about the two.

ASP.NET, developed by tech giant Microsoft, is generally used for commercial platforms primarily due to the fact that devs can use it with any .NET supported language. 

PHP or Hypertext Preprocessor originated as a scripting tool. The open source language eventually made it big as the most used language owing to its simplicity and large developer community. The various frameworks available makes PHP a great option that considerably simplifies web development. 

Now let’s compare.

Cost difference and User groups

ASP.NET is a Microsoft solution with Windows backing. So there would be costs involved. PHP is open source and free. Just because ASP.NET has a Windows backing doesn’t mean that it can applied on Windows machines alone. Using tools like Mono, you can work with ASP.NET on Linux or Mac machines to build cross-platform applications.  

PHP user groups can be generally classified into two. One group uses the LAMP stack (acronym for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) for web development. LAMP is quite popular. In fact, it’s not difficult to find cost-effective LAMP development services from reputed providers across the globe. 

The second PHP user group uses MySQL, PostgreSQL server, Apache, and Linux OS. This variant of LAMP is entirely free, including upgrades.

For ASP.NET, there are Windows and IIS groups. The cost keeps changing occasionally, especially for professional grade services. 

Scalability

Both PHP and ASP.NET are highly scalable, and both follows programming guidelines to make it easier for programmers. 

Performance

Microsoft’s support for ASP.NET is noticeable from the evolution of the technology over the years. So to measure the performance of both ASP.NET and PHP, we have to consider interaction between the servers, database, and the script. 

Web applications built with the LAMP stack deliver excellent results, which is one other reason for its popularity. ASP.NET commonly uses MSSQL and occasionally MySQL though the latter is considered to be more effective. The open source nature of PHP and because it’s a dev favorite, the community itself makes it better with each version – robust and reliable enough to outclass ASP in most scenarios.

For simpler, appealing websites, LAMP stack delivers great results. For complex, enterprise-grade applications, ASP.NET is ideal. 

Support

PHP has dynamic support forums. The huge open source community is ready to help with all sorts of technical challenges that may arise. Microsoft tries its best to give the best support for ASP.NET though it isn’t as dynamic as the community support for PHP. This is why beginners tend to gravitate towards PHP.

Conclusion

The general trend is to leverage PHP for developing high performance, less complex web applications. However, ASP.NET still powers several business applications without fail. From a business standpoint, a more reliable choice would be to use ASP.NET development services due to it being a long-running Microsoft solution. For growing businesses, PHP is the way to go.