When developing a product for business, it’s important to take into account not only the functionality, but also the further development of the application, its support, expansion of capabilities, and many other nuances. Therefore, you need to carefully select the stack of technologies for development. In particular, it’s necessary to choose a programming language. Let’s compare ASP and PHP which are the most popular languages ​​for creating products for businesses.

PHP

PHP is a programming language that was developed in 1995 but is still popular today. It has a huge community, developers support it and create new libraries and functionality.

The language was originally created for the development of websites and products that work through a browser. Such a service can be opened on any operating system, which significantly expands the target audience of the business and reduces the cost of development.

The pros and cons of PHP are well balanced for business needs. Today, about 80% of all sites on the network are made in this language. PHP is dynamic, free, open source and has a large supporter base. Therefore, development issues are resolved quickly, and surprises in projects happen rarely.

PHP’s key advantage over ASP is the number and variety of frameworks to work with. The entry threshold isn’t so high, so it’s easy enough to study. The technology is easy to adapt to any needs and scale of development. On it, you can create both simple one-page sites or business cards of companies, as well as complex online stores, catalogs, and social networks.

Pros and cons of a PHP framework

When choosing a technology stack, you need to pay attention to the advantages and disadvantages of the tools. Cheap development may require high costs in the subsequent expansion and support of the product. Complex programming languages ​​are good at global tasks, but it’s difficult to find specialists to work with them. Let’s break down the main pros and cons of PHP so you can see if it’s right for your needs.

Benefits:

• PHP is designed for developing websites and applications, and it’s able to solve almost any business problem. On it, you can create both a simple corporate website and a complex multifunctional product for business.
• Further development and implementation of additional functions and components is inexpensive and done quickly enough.
• A large community helps speed up development. Even if a specialist cannot solve a problem, he will probably quickly find all the necessary instructions and tools.
• The syntax is quite simple and intuitive, so PHP is easy to learn. And cross-platform makes it possible to create a product that works on different operating systems. 
• High scripting speed and flexibility make it possible to quickly and inexpensively scale the project.
• If new services appear in your company, or new pages, functionality and other elements need to be added to the site, this is done quickly and cheaply.
• Another advantage of PHP over ASP is that the former has very powerful and detailed documentation.
• Practical solutions can be found for any task, and the community regularly adds answers to difficult questions.
• PHP frameworks allow you to significantly simplify the creation of sites. Platforms such as Laravel, Symfony, CakePHP, CodeIgniter are popular. 

If you need a business product that will work through a browser, then PHP is a great solution. The site will be fast, efficient, powerful and reliable. But this language also has disadvantages:

• A popular and open programming language attracts the attention of hackers and scammers, which makes developers always pay special attention to security. 
• In PHP, you can create not only web products, but it was originally developed for this task. Therefore, for desktop applications, mobile applications, hardware programming, it’s better to use other technologies.
• The syntax isn’t always distinguished by harmony, because not only its creators themselves work on the development of the language, but also enthusiasts and amateurs. Therefore, there are elements in which you can get confused.
• Knowing HTML and CSS, you can create a simple website in PHP in a few hours, the threshold for entering development is very low. This is good for specialists, but creates difficulties for businesses. The chance to stumble upon an incompetent outsourcer is quite high. 

When comparing PHP and ASP, you need to understand that the former is suitable for business products that are aimed at interacting with your customers.

ASP.NET

ASP.NET is a web application development platform from Microsoft. It includes various web services, software infrastructure and other components. 

The main feature of the technology is that developers can use other programming languages ​​when working on ASP.NET. Specifically those included in the .NET Framework: C#, Visual Basic .NET, J#, and JScript. This significantly expands the development possibilities and allows you to create high-quality products for any area.

The technology has many different frameworks and software modules that expand the functionality. ASP.NET is suitable for developing websites and applications. It can be used to implement real-time technologies, create mobile applications, and is used to work with WebHooks. This is a professional tool for creating powerful business products.

Pros and cons of the ASP.NET framework

Why do we need to compare ASP and PHP? To understand the advantages and disadvantages of technologies in individual tasks. Despite its popularity, ASP has a number of limitations. In particular, a programmer will have to spend a lot of time learning the technology and additional languages. It‘s not so easy to find a specialist in the field of this development. 

But the pros of ASP.NET still outweigh the cons:

• Despite the complexity of the technology, ASP.NET code looks more concise. The same task will require less time and resources than other programming languages, including PHP. In this regard, in the battle of ASP vs PHP, the latter loses.
• ASP.NET is suitable for large projects where impressive workloads are expected. If your company interacts with a large number of customers, then this programming language will do the job to create a quality product.
• ASP.NET is a whole set of technologies and tools that allow you to solve problems of any complexity.
• This is a cross-platform technology. Although it was created by Microsoft, products developed with ASP.NET don’t only work on Windows.
• Maintenance of the finished product is inexpensive, but scaling can be a problem. That’s why this technology is often used for massive projects in which the architecture is worked out in detail.
• The technology provides high opportunities in terms of security. Therefore, it’s often used to create government products and corporate websites.

Thanks to such capabilities, the technology copes with complex tasks. For small businesses, it’ll be unreasonably expensive, but for medium and large companies it’s perfect. At the same time, the disadvantages should also be taken into account.

The disadvantages of ASP.NET are as follows:

• ASP.NET development is quite expensive. The cost is affected by the licensing of the tools that are used, as well as the selection of specialists and developers who use this technology to create business products.
• Scaling is quite tricky. Therefore, before development, it’s necessary to think over the architecture of the application in detail and take into account many points in advance. In the future, introducing new functionality won’t be so easy.
• Under light load, the engine performs worse, because the compilation method is used, not the interpretation. Therefore, this technology isn’t suitable for small projects.
• For comfortable work, the programmer needs to know additional languages. The search and work of such specialists will cost more.
• If you compare PHP and ASP, the second one has a much smaller community, so it won’t be so easy to find answers to questions. But this is offset by a large amount of documentation and various literature.

ASP.NET is suitable for creating console applications, dynamic sites, and personal CRM systems. It’s used in the development of accounting systems, programs for logistics, and business intelligence. Mobile, desktop applications, web applications, accounting and inventory systems are developed on ASP. This is a very popular technology for the business environment.

ASP.NET vs PHP comparison

To understand if there are any advantages of PHP over ASP, let’s compare them in several ways. They’re the most important when choosing a technology stack and selecting tools for developing business applications. We’ll cover the following aspects:

• Speed ​​and performance. PHP uses interpretation while ASP uses compilation. The first one is suitable for small and medium projects, such as an online store, a catalog, and a website for a company. The second one is more suitable for large projects with many functions. This doesn’t mean that only simple products are created in PHP. Many well-known companies use this programming language. But in comparison, it works faster for small projects.
• Scalability. In the battle of PHP vs ASP, the former wins in terms of scalability. It makes it easier to add new elements and expand functionality. But at the same time, support is more difficult, since debugging is quite difficult. ASP.NET is easier to maintain but more difficult to add functionality. Therefore, it’s necessary to think over the architecture in advance, because any improvements will cost more.
• Safety. Both technologies provide a high level of protection. But Microsoft takes the issue very seriously, so ASP.NET is considered more reliable. Many security features are immediately included in packages during development. In the event of security troubles, the application stops working and issues a warning about the problem. When using PHP, the programmer must take care of security himself. Testers have additional responsibility.
• Market share. About 80% of websites are created in PHP. It’s very popular, but ASP.NET isn’t just used to build web products. Both products are popular, and in total they occupy approximately 60% of the total market share.

Both technologies are great for creating high-quality applications for business tasks. If you need to focus on performance, interface, client interaction, choose PHP. ASP.NET is more suitable for creating computing products, analytics services, and digitizing business processes.

Websites built using PHP

We have repeatedly said that PHP is used for small projects and websites. This is true, but it doesn’t mean much in terms of functionality and workflows. Many companies use this language to create their products. Here are some popular websites built with PHP:

• Facebook is the largest social network with many functions and a high level of load;
• Wikipedia is the most popular and huge online encyclopedia, translated into 301 languages;
• WordPress.com is a platform for publishing blogs and websites, business cards, online stores, a kind of website builder that supports a database;
• Flickr is the largest photo hosting site where you can store photos and videos;
• Yahoo! is a search engine created in PHP;
• iStockPhoto refers to an international platform for trading photo content, a kind of online store;
• Tumblr is a blogging platform that allows you to create various content;
• Mailchimp is a popular mailing service that has a large number of ready-made templates and convenient functionality.

As you can see, a large number of high-quality websites and business products are created in PHP. Your product may also be on this list.

Websites built using ASP.NET

Comparing ASP and PHP, it’s difficult to keep silent about interesting products created on Microsoft technologies. ASP.NET has been used for the development of the following projects:

• StackOverflow is a large system of questions and answers related to programming that helps other users solve technical problems;
• Microsoft is the site of the founding company ASP.NET and it was created using this technology. This is the best example of the reliability and guarantee of product performance;
• GoDaddy is a major domain name registrar;
• DELL represents the site of a large American computer manufacturer;
• Visual Studio is a development environment for creating applications for the Windows operating system, mobile applications, cloud solutions;
• WildTangent is a platform for selling games adapted for Windows, where users can play demo versions of games, buy full versions, take part in beta tests;
• Diply.com is a major social news website that used to be in the top 100 most famous sites in the world.

ASP.NET is used to create large-scale products that can withstand heavy loads.

Conclusions

Choosing a technology stack is a responsible step. It determines the cost of development, the timing of the implementation of the product, its further development and promotion. Therefore, it’s better to entrust the choice to professionals.

We at our company build a technology stack based on analytics and expert advice to determine the true needs and objectives of a particular business. So we can understand what product needs to be made and what tools to use. In order not to be tormented by the choice between ASP and PHP, simply contact us. Our experts will help you form the concept of the project. Let’s digitize your business together!