PHP vs ASP.NET – Performance, Cost, and Speed

There are many programming languages available for building web or native apps. But in web development projects, PHS and ASP.NET are two of the most commonly used programming languages. Picking one of them for your needs is difficult without knowing any prior benefits, facts, or figures in hand.

So, when it comes to PHP vs. ASP.NET, developers and IT managers are confused about which one should be used for dynamic web pages. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but the most common outcome in these debates is that people choose one over the other based on their budget or familiarity.

If you compare numbers, more than 77% of internet websites use PHP over ASP.NET. The W3techs have estimated this fact after knowing the server-side programming languages of many websites. On the other hand, 7.8% of the sites whose server-side language is known are using ASP.NET.

In general, the two are pretty different, and while web developers will often use both to build similar web apps, there are a few key areas that might sway your decision one way or the other. In today’s article, we’re going to discuss whether PHP or ASP.NET is better for your next development project or not and what makes them different from each other.

Introduction to ASP.NET and PHP

ASP.NET

ASP.NET is an open-source server-side framework that aids in the development of robust web applications for PCs and mobile devices. It was created and backed by Microsoft and has been made to work with the standard HTTP protocol. In addition, it utilizes HTTP commands and policies for establishing the interaction between browser and server and vice versa.

Its predecessor ASP (Active Server Page) had performed well in the market, and now ASP.NET is doing amazing. The most current version of this programming language is 4.8, which was released in 2019.
ASP.NET extends the capability of.NET using specialized web development tools and libraries. Whatever apps you build with this framework can work on Windows, Linux, macOS, and Docker.

Likes:

• Reduce the development time with some pre-coded functions.
• It supports all programming languages.
• Enables separation for input, process, and the output

Dislikes:

• Less Secure
• The Windows licensing cost, Visual Studio license, and SQL Server license are expensive.

PHP

PHP, or Hypertext Preprocessor, is a broadly used server-side scripting language. This programming language framework comes with Microsoft SQL database support to integrate with the PHP code.

Likes:

• Database-centered and full customization support
• It provides excellent security.
• Cost-friendly and easier to learn.
• Constantly improved by the team of developers and community support.
• Ideal for development when you want instant access to the different data types.
• Rapid development to create websites

Critical Differences Between ASP.NET and PHP

• ASP.NET is a server-side framework for the dynamic development of web pages, whereas PHP is the server-side scripting language for web development but can be used for general purposes as well.
• PHP development market share is high in comparison to ASP.NET. Despite having dedicated developers, even the community support for PHP is bigger than that for ASP.NET.
• ASP.NET is platform-dependent, and PHP is platform agnostic. Moreover, we now have some powerful PHP frameworks for rapid and cross-platform development.
• The hosting cost of ASP.NET is higher than it costs to host web apps with PHP.
• ASP.NET offers support for the IIS Server, and PHP provides compatibility for most local servers, including Apache and IIS.
• Developing apps quickly with ASP.NET can be done with Visual Studio as it supports drag and drops features. On the other hand, PHP development works better on IDEs like Netbeans, Eclipse, and Zend Studio.

Let’s move into a detailed comparison.

PHP vs ASP.NET – Speed

You can take the scenario of a website querying a database and yielding the output on the server and web browser. In this condition, there is a simple interaction between the database and the server. For this purpose, ASP.NET and PHP boast equal fast access to file systems, images, and pages on the server. Hence, the server’s speed mainly depends on the server, the bandwidth, and the computer.

Besides, one significant point to note is that ASP.NET is built on a Common Type System. This slows down their development process. And PHP doesn’t consume system resources, which speeds up the running of sites. Instead, it operates using its own memory space.

Performance

The performance of the ASP.NET framework and PHP programming language primarily depends on how the database, script, and server communicate.

Taking up the PHP web application, its implementation utilizes the LAMP format. It’s a common acronym for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP configurations. This means you can simply install this group of software on your server to quickly create a web application.

On the other hand, Implementing an ASP.NET application is much more work.

Scalability

Scalability is among the most important factors for any project. And both ASP and PHP don’t break down when you need to scale your web app. For example – Facebook has millions of users PHP. Myspace which had at one time, before Facebook, huge traffic is built using ASP .NET.

Community Support

Both have active community support, with one being more than the other. It’s no doubt that PHP developers are available in abundance, so its community will be more extensive too. That being said, you can get instant support and answers to your problems and challenges in the PHP web development process.

Whether you are an organization that is looking to replace your aging websites with one that supports and optimizes your web applications or a developer who wants to develop quality websites with high
Security Features

A big difference between ASP.NET and PHP is the security options offered by both, but ASP.NET is equipped with inbuilt security facilities such as SQL injection. So, it automatically sees the security of your app, whereas PHP only allows access to the security tools.

This is when ASP.NET stands as the clear winner. No matter how talented a web development team you have got, PHP applications can be vulnerable.

Most importantly, in the end, you have to follow all the security features to prevent data loss or malicious attacks on your database server.

Customization Support

So, you are thinking of customizing themes and all the other elements of your website. For this, the best choice is to build a web app using PHP.

ASP.NET lacks web customization support, and when you do, by any means, it becomes complex to resolve bugs. Although this web framework provides more control over the content, it fails to impress us with the changes to be made on the website.

Here, PHP is the clear winner. It has plenty of customization support for any kind of web development application.

The wise choice can only be made here by analyzing your application needs and whether you have expert web developers who can remove errors resulting from poor coding.

Cost Comparison

PHP has the edge over ASP.NET when comparing the costs. The reason behind this is that it is open source and completely free. But in the case of ASP.NET, there are some hosting charges. So, you can cut down the development costs with the help of PHP.

When you factor in the cost of the Integrated Development Environment, ASP.NET runs on Microsoft Visual Studio, and its Microsoft license is quite expensive. However, it has introduced its free version of the IDE known as Microsoft Express.

Both are ideal for development needs, but none provide a better user experience than PHP IDEs.The latter one has the backing of free and paid IDEs that can run without any hassle on the Linux and Mac platforms.

Database Handling

PHP is compatible with every platform as the database. It’s integrated, scalable, and most importantly, supports MYSQL too. The blend of both allows for an improvement in web content management systems. That’s why lakhs of bloggers worldwide love working with PHP on a platform like WordPress.

How to Decide Between the Two?

If you are pondering whether to go with the ASP.NET development or PHP development, the decision will be evaluated on factors such as features offered by your chosen platform, speed of development, and optimization efficiency. Each differs in terms of open source free libraries, how plugins are installed and enabled, database connectivity options, and more.