Author: Maneet Puri

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 doesn't 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 the list of differences stated above PHP is more of choice to deploy a cost affective dynamic website.

About the Author:
Maneet Puri is the director of Day Robinson Services India, an emerging web solutions India provider. 10 years of substantial industry experience in web developing and web designing has enabled Maneet to assist many offshore clients in implementing various knowledge driven process. He also offers web maintenance India services to many customers located across the globe. "