PHP or ASP ?

[paul]

Which is most popular PHP or ASP and why?

[Peter]

I would say PHP, PHP is the open source alternative to ASP that runs on multiple operating systems including Linux, Windows solaris and others OS.

[paul]

I agree, PHP is a server-side scripting language and it can be used on all major operating systems and supports most of the web servers, possibly this might be the reason that it so popular.

[Alex]

I think comparing speed wise PHP has an upper hand. PHP runs faster than ASP.

[Erik100]

PHP is much popular and faster as compared to ASP.

[kev woodman]

Probably a bit late to reply to this post but I thought I'd throw in my tuppence.

If we are talking about PHP vs classic ASP then I'd say that PHP wins but I'm not sure that's true about ASP.NET which has an entirely new architecture. ALthough you'll find fanboys on either side of the arguement I haven't seen any definitive studies as to which is faster and, from personal experience, I would have to say that you're unlikely to notice much of a difference in any sort of application that doesn't involve an enterprise level site.

Obvioulsy you could argue which is the best platform on which to develop but as far as speed is concerned I would suggest it depends entirely on what you want to do.

[James]

PHP is better than ASP bcoz it is an open source, it has inbuilt features and can be embedded into HTML pages. It is often used with MySQL and it can be used on multiple platforms like Linux, Unix, Windows and Solaris and it can connect to various databases.

[kev woodman]

It's not that simple surely?

PHP is more popular than ASP.NET because it's free and it runs on Apache, but you can't just say that one is better than the other, it depends what you're trying to develop and who for.

Ok, so PHP is open source. You can argue that that makes it better although I don't think the arguements are cut and dried.

And ASP.NET controls are embedded into HTML as well, although, like PHP, the processing is done server-side.

PHP has built in features? What features? And why would they be any different or better than the features built into, say, C#.NET which has a huge class library and is fully object-oriented?

The fact that PHP is often used with MySQL is neither here nor there. Both platforms support a variety of dbms.

But I agree it does win out on the compatability front. Of course if you're working in an environment which uses Windows server to provide a Web server then that isn't an issue. And there are still plenty of those about, particularly at corporate level.

I've used, and continue to use, both platforms and it's horses for courses.

Except that JSP is better than both

[Prince of Cats]

I use PHP.

I used to use ASP (the old one) back when I was writing my first big site on one of the Gamespy planet-sites. It was fairly easy to use, since I was (at that time) coding in MS Visual Basic and Javascript. I still had to use help-pages but I picked it up fast enough.

Later, I switched to PHP when I had to write an online ordering system. I am not sure who recommended it to me but they said my C++ experience would help (why? it is hardly an OOPL...) but I did catch on quite fast.

Your mileage may vary but I found PHP was easier to learn, in my case at least. I never used ASP.NET though, so that may be easier to learn than straight ASP. If you already use one or other of the languages, though, go with what you know. Learning multiple languages is for computer-science undergraduates and people who like to show off...

[kev woodman]

Lucky I'm both a show-off and a comp-sci undergrad

[talkwebz]

i think php is most popular since most portal systems uses php instead of asp and i bet most webmaster don't even use asp. PHP ROX

[kev woodman]

Portals? Pretty old hat aren't they? And what portals use PHP? I'm sure there are some, I'm just interested in knowing which.

If you're talking enterprise level then I guess Yahoo and MSN are both sites which started off as 'portals' but both are more RIAs now (and of curse MSN is ASP.net).

I like PHP because you can develop quickly but even v5 isn't a true object-oriented language and it's lack of support for any offlline client-side deployment can be a problem. I still think that for extensibility and flexibility that Java and .Net come out ahead.

Having said that MySQL is a different kettle of fish. That's a serious database that manages to be free and powerful enough for mission critical stuff.

[talkwebz]

well phpnuke is one and
smf
phpbb
phpcoin
a lot of scripts are made with php. the reason msn is asp.net since its microsofts.
by the way admin please check ur pm. i send something to u

[kev woodman]

phpNuke = content management system
phpBB = bulletin board software
phpCoin = management/ecommerce system
smf = forum software

None of these are portals (although I guess phpNuke could be used to create a portal). Back in the day 'portals' were designed to be a gateway onto the 'net, hence the name. Yahoo was a portal because it was intended to be your one-stop home page offering email, links ot other sites, categorisation and value added services like calendars.

These sites have moved on - now they are RIAs or aggregators - although the home pages of a lot of ISPs still seem to be portal-like.

I'd argue that what is a portal is a grey area but that the list you provided doesn't include any.

And yes obviously MSN uses asp.net because it's MS, that doesn't mean that it's the only site that uses asp.

Some of the most vistited sites on the 'net are Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN, MySpace, Google and eBay. Out of these MySpace, MSn, Hotmail and eBay are powered by ASP.Net. As far as I know Yahoo is JSP, Google I'm not sure of. PHP is popular because it's free and easy to learn, but that doesn't mean that it's the best tool for the job.

[talkwebz]

Well now these days people call phpnuke and other scripts i just mention portals hmm well anyway i agree with u that some other websites use asp.net but php is most widely use since its free and i agree that asp.net might be better than php but php is free .