Applicability: PHP was originally intended for use under Linux with Apache web server. ASP was designed for use under Windows NT operating system with Microsoft’s IIS web server. Although for web hosting PHP MySQL was the original combination, over the years PHP has been ported to many other operating systems and today works with UNIX/Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac and other operating systems. PHP web hosting offers flexibility and applicability across platforms. ASP works with Microsoft operating systems such as Windows 2000 and Windows 2003.
Portability: Because PHP today works with many operating systems it has better portability. This means that applications developed using PHP under one operating system can be recompiled to run on any other operating system that supports PHP. This feature gives rise to several advantages. Firstly, it eliminates dependence on any particular operating system. If the application is to run on several independent servers that run on different operating systems, the programs could be used without changing and re-writing. Because of platform independence, PHP web hosting gives freedom to the web site owner to move his/her site to any server running any of the operating systems that support PHP, and that includes virtually all operating systems that are in use today.
Ease of Learning: PHP is very similar to the C language and any programmer having knowledge of C or any language that is similar to C in structure, including Java, Perl, and several other popular programming languages. Since almost every programmer learns C as part of his/her curriculum and many use it at some point in their career, with many more programmers using Java and other languages, PHP has the advantage of being easy to learn for most programmers. This allows cheap PHP web hosting possible, making PHP web hosting a preferred choice among web hosting companies. ASP also has advantages when it comes to ease of learning and familiarity, but this is restricted to users of a particular class, and is therefore less generic. ASP uses the Common Integrated Development Environment that is used by programmers in Visual Basic and other languages of Visual Studio such as Visual C. This makes it easy for existing Visual Basic programmers to use ASP.
Support Features: With PHP web site hosting, the programmer can pack a lot more power more easily, because PHP comes with a lot integrated support features that allow greater programming power and permit things like image manipulation. This makes PHP web hosting an attractive proposition. With ASP this is possible by writing COM objects and installing them as DLLs. This will involve configuring the computer, which may not always be available to the programmer. Thus ASP will serve the purpose if there are no additional features and the operating system is Windows. For more complex applications, ASP will involve a greater degree of effort and will be contingent on a number of other factors like configuring the concerned server.
Usage: ASP applications are popular in situations where the software is already running on Microsoft platforms. Since there is a large base of legacy software particularly in in-company applications, ASP is found useful in these situations. Moreover, in-company users often have a variety of ad hoc applications of their own running under popular Microsoft environments such as MS-Excel and MS-Access. Integration of these applications becomes easier with a Microsoft based programming language. Thus for in-company applications running usually at one location or under an intranet, and requiring few frills, ASP serves well. Web hosting companies and individuals, who are interested in applications that run well, with good speed and possibly powerful features, should find PHP web hosting more useful. First of all, this class of users does not have the compulsions or constraints imposed by legacy software, in-company staff trained in a particular platform or software, and the need to integrate with existing applications. This frees them from these considerations and allows them to evaluate the software more objectively. Secondly, this class of users is more interested in such issues as portability, performance and ease of maintenance. All this makes web hosting PHP MySQL combination attractive. From the points of view of these considerations and the total overall cost of ownership, PHP offers greater advantage to these users, making it possible to offer cheap PHP web hosting solutions.
Speed: Speed is a consideration that applies to all classes of users. However, if you are hosting a website that is likely to be used by a large and varying number of general users, speed is much more important. This is because, in an in-house application a certain amount of variation in speed causing the system to run slower at times would not matter as much as in a general website. The in-house users generally do not mind waiting for a short while, although serious deterioration in performance will affect these users also. When you are hosting a website that is likely to be visited by a number of prospective customers, speed becomes much more important. Visitors to the site may not have the patience to wait for a long time and will get impatient if the initial loading of the home page or the subsequent navigation is slow. This might cause them to leave the site if the speed is not good, resulting in possible loss of business. So in terms of user expectation, patience of the users, and the consequences of slow performance, a web hosting for commercial purposes and for use by general public will need to consider speed more seriously. PHP web hosting offers these features.
The speed of PHP is very good and compares favorably with that of ASP. Both PHP and ASP work on an interpretive mode, in which the code is taken line-by-line and converted to machine executable language. Thus the speed of the interpreter becomes important in determining the performance of the software. PHP has been developed using the C language, which is known for its compact nature and consequent speed of execution. This in turn makes the PHP compiler faster in execution. The preferred combination of web hosting PHP MySQL will of course provide truly outstanding performance.
Stability: No software in the world is bug free. When we speak of stability in software, we mean the speed and ease with which problems can be solved. Stability refers to the probability that the software would run without crashing. Software can give unexpected results or crash due to bugs. When a program encounters a situation that is not foreseen by the developer, it may perform in this manner, giving rise to bugs. Bugs can arise from both the application software and the system software including bugs in the programming language used to develop the software. When the bug results from the application software developed by a programmer he or she has the control over the program and hence the means to rectify the problem. If the problem lies with the system software such as the programming language compiler, the problem will have to be solved only by the person or company that has developed the compiler. This makes the programmer and the software normally dependent on the company that sells the development and compiling software, and bugs remain unsolved until they are attended to by the company. This could lead to several situations where the developer could become helpless. If the problem is uncommon and has not been experienced by other developers, the company is unlikely to take it up on priority and the programmer may have to find other means of solving the problem like contrived work-arounds. Even if it is a common problem the company may take its own time to solve it. This is where open source software scores. Since the source code of the software is available to everyone, the problem can be solved by any competent programmer. PHP is open source software that gives this freedom to developers. This results in two advantages. First, for common problems, someone among the community of users is likely to have already solved the problem or is likely to solve the problem soon. So bug fixes are available more easily and faster. The second advantage is that in case of uncommon problems that no one else has experienced, solutions can be found by the developer or by someone working for the developer or the hosting company. This is one of the main reasons for the growing popularity of open source software that includes Linux, and PHP, and has contributed to effective and cheap PHP web hosting.
Functions and Extensibility: A programming language gets its power from the extensibility that it has. By this is meant the ease with which additional features can be added. For example, if you wanted to have features of image processing, and if the language supported this through the functions that have been developed and the library that is available, you can use these and quickly develop the feature that you want. If the language did not have the functions already developed and available, or does not have an extensive library, you could still develop these at least theoretically, but it will require a substantial amount of additional effort for you. In some cases it might be almost impossible. Where it is possible, it would still involve time and cost. Availability of functions to perform various programming tasks within the language and the availability of an extensive library that contains functions for various specific tasks makes the job of a programmer easier and more productive. In the absence of such functions, third party tools and libraries sometimes come in handy, but being external to the basic environment they may still require additional effort and may involve issues of compatibility. For these reasons the best thing is to have the necessary functions available as part of the compiler, failing which at least third party libraries that integrate with the system should be available. The worst case is one in which neither the native functions nor the third party tools are available. PHP is rich in functions and has additional and extensive libraries that make many programming tasks easier. PHP web hosting gives a lot of power to the programmer apart from increasing productivity. ASP has a more limited set of functions, but third party libraries are available.
Server compatibility: The server in a web-hosting situation comprises of two parts ? the hardware and the software. Here we are talking about the software part of the server, which is responsible for serving the requested pages to the user. A number of web servers are in use including Microsoft’s Internet Information Services (IIS) and the open source Apache server. The most popular according to several recent surveys is the Apache server followed by Microsoft IIS. PHP is compatible with both Apache and IIS, the former being part of its native environment. This makes PHP more versatile and flexible apart from providing better performance on the most popular server. ASP is native to IIS and works well with it, but cannot work with other servers.
Open Source: There are certain characteristics of open source software that have made them increasingly popular. First of all open source software is free software. The software should not require any restriction or fees for its redistribution. Secondly, the program should be available in compiled form as well as with source code. The modification and extensions to source code should be permitted. The programs should be available to all persons without any discrimination. Distribution of the programs should not be contingent on the sale of any other software as a necessary condition, and the software should not be technology specific. The advantages of open source software will be readily appreciated from these characteristics of open source software. As against this, proprietary software has no such restrictions and could promote proprietary interests in addition to being unavailable for improvement, modification or bug fixing. This makes open source software more amenable to quick solution to problems, bug fixing and rapid development and progress, so that the software evolves quickly, and develops continuously. PHP is open source software. This means that all the advantages and features listed above are available in PHP. ASP is proprietary software. The source code of ASP is available with Microsoft and only Microsoft has the means as well as the authority to modify the software.
Database Access: Much of the data that forms part of your website lies in databases that hold the data in the backend. A database is a collection of related information that is organized for easy access and retrieval of information through queries that are user friendly. There are different databases available commercially, and you will be choosing one of these to hold your data. One of the primary requirements from your scripting language will naturally be its ability to communicate to the database that you have chosen for this purpose. Both ASP and PHP can connect to a number of different databases, and to almost any of the commonly used and popular databases. So whichever of the two you choose, you should be able to connect to your database. However, the scripting language has certain databases as a natural backend to which it connects directly and other databases to which it connects through ODBC drivers. PHP’s natural backend is MySQL. It also connects directly to a number of other databases. ASP’s natural backend is SQL Server. Connecting through ODBC can have a number of disadvantages including deterioration in performance and need for additional configuration. Incidentally MySQL is also open source and is fast becoming the preferred backend for a number of applications.
Popularity: As we have seen right in the beginning, both ASP and PHP have their adherents, and both are popular in their respective segments. Popularity is important because it makes sure that sufficient numbers of trained programmers are available and support and help are not problems. However, there are two issues that favor PHP. The first is that ASP has its own learning curve and learning it requires effort and time in its own right. PHP also requires learning, but since it is very similar to C and related languages, a large number of programmers are available who are exposed to these, if not to PHP, and will find it much easier to learn PHP. So if you are stuck up, with PHP you can easily train one of your existing programmers or find someone in the market who if not already well versed in PHP can easily pick it up. The second advantage is that outside of in-house applications PHP web hosting is becoming the preferred choice and a large number of web hosting is done in PHP. This will result in greater availability of PHP programmers in the future.
Support: What has support got to do with a programming language? If you run into trouble you will need support with a programming language as much as you would need with any other service. This might be required in two areas. First, the solution to your problems ? if you face a bug, who is going to solve it and how soon is it going to be solved? Secondly, the knowledge support that is available for the language has to be considered. If you don’t know how to do a thing, are there some people out there who can help you? Has someone else already faced the problem that you are facing and has he or she found a solution to it? User groups are available for both ASP and PHP and you could share their experiences and benefit from the combined knowledge pool that is available. I would say that both are almost equal in the availability of such help, although because of its open source nature PHP web site hosting might have an edge. The other aspect of support, namely availability of help to solve your problems such as bugs, is clearly better in open source software as we have already seen, and PHP has a definite edge over ASP in this area.
The Choice: As we have seen, if you considering a general website and are not constrained by legacy systems, cheap PHP web hosting could be an ideal choice. PHP web site hosting is offered by a number of companies at a very low cost. It is worth considering some of these. Although you need to be careful while considering a cheap solution, cheap is not necessarily bad, and there are a lot of companies which offer good, cheap solutions that are worth looking at.
