They've both got their pro's and con's.
While most people seem to boast about PHP's superior capabilities, their opinion is biased.
I my experience, these platforms are about equivalently advantageous.

ASP.NET tends to be more expensive to develop in, as there are less programmers available. Conversely, if you are a programmer, you get paid better.

If you have programming experience in C or VB, the transition to ASP should easy for you. The Visual Studio interface is very pleasant. Visual studio also comes with this massive class library and a great deal of third party components easily available.

.NET runs on a Microsoft platform (Server IIS) and PHP runs on Unix (generally apache).

I've always found more community support available in PHP: it's open-source and community driven.

I'm not going to get into the details of server side includes, MLIS or the security issues, as these points are highly arguable.

Conclusion:
It's a matter of preference.

I almost always pick PHP, because I frequently side with unix based technology (I'm a command line pro), and, in my opinion, the servers are easier to manage and more secure (highly arguable).

Also, I think Microsoft has been slightly lacking in vision this decade.
I never liked .NET, but my opinion is highly biased.

It all depends on what you intend to use the language for or what industry you're going into.

For example, if you want to be a freelance web designer/developer then it has to be PHP simple because it's the mostly widely requested service in the freelance market if your on oDesk, vWorker, Elance, etc.

If you're looking for a broader appeal as in job request boards .NET would do you good because it can be used both for web development and application development which is what a lot of design firms are looking for.

So as always it depends on your goal and the direction you're planning on going. Think career wise. What is it you want to do for the next 20 years?

CyberSorcerer

That's a difficult call to make...

The short answer is that they're BOTH excellent. I've used both ASP.NET (using VB.NET) and PHP. (The main reason I learned PHP is because it's used in WordPress.)

I love Visual Basic.NET. It's actually fun to write programs with it. And a HUGE benefit of using .NET is that the programming techniques for either the web -- or the desktop -- are extremely similar. You can't write desktop programs with PHP.

That said, PHP may actually be a better choice for first-time web developers. PHP makes it a lot easier to work with files and includes (called "user controls" in ASP.NET) -- and you'll probably use them a lot.

In addition, there are many excellent books on PHP and the user base is large and helpful.

Regards,

John

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Php i guess as it is simpler then .net and now a days most of the corporate world use php ..

PHP is a relatively simpler language to use than ASP.net. Initially, PHP was written in the C programming language to replace a set of scripts in Perl. That is the reason why coding in PHP remains simple even today. Many developers find themselves to be more at ease with the user-friendly nature of PHP when it comes to coding.PHP is has much better support for the database management system, MySQL. In fact, the very popular blogging platform, WordPress uses the formidable combination of PHP coding on MySQL for its content management system, which includes about hundreds of thousands of blog posts every single day. Another very popular and frequently updated service that uses the combination of PHP and MySQL is Wikipedia. People who use both PHP and ASP.net also maintain their opinion that PHP is better for embedded support with another database management system, viz. SQLite.

Go with PHP and use PHP framework to boost your coding time, i recommended Kohana framework. Search it on google.

Although php is easy,free and open source but I personally prefer .net due to its multilanguage support,better error handling,better separation of design and business logic and its support for AJAX.

Alot of the replies stole my thunder. I think some great points were made, however, my two cents is biased and hands-down PHP. It's fast, widely accepted and there's a ton of tutorials and online support.

I'd recommend PHP for 2 reasons :
1) .NET requires more expensive hosting
2) PHP is a lot more script, ASP.NET is a programming language for web, a lot more messy for my opinion.

Of-course if you're a pro-programmer and you're willing to do big sites / ecommerce stuff you may prefer .NET by far

PHP is easy and can be learned fast.
if you learn PHP framework like Zend framework,CodeIgniter etc then you will be rewarded more.

It's better to go along with .php, because it is a powerful search engine scripting language, and can also bring you way more search traffic for free.

PHP is the best option. Iam myself an asp.net developer and know PHP a little bit too. I personally prefer .net but only i know what kind of hell it is. For beginners PHP is the best method.

PHP is the best. Easy to program, host, etc. And .NET is not free

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It all depends on what you would like to do in your project. I think PHP is easy to learn but not as flexible as .Net, but first you must know what environment you will work at. you must know kind of server you will host you media at. it will determine everything.

Hello....

It is very difficult to say that which one is best....but i personally prefer ASP.NET. because it strongly follows the OOPs concept.

I am using both of them as per client's requirement but I have to choose one of the two i would go for php

PHP go with it blindly )

PHP open source matters

As a .net developer I prefer .NET. Because ASP.Net has all latest web development technologies and it’s easy to learn and understand for beginners.

PHP is more secure.
ASP.NET is faster than PHP4.
PHP5 and ASP.NET perform about the same.
ASP.NET is known for exploits when running on IIS.
PHP is cross-platform.
ASP.NET is windows only.
PHP is free and less costly to use.
ASP.NET web hosting is very expensive.

It really depends on what you want to do. What will be the size of this eCommerce site?

For larger sites, ASP and Microsoft SQL are your best bet.
MySQL is not suitable for large websites unless InnoDB or Merge tables are used, as well as proper database design.

A lot of very good points here, but I'll offer my thoughts.

1) ASP only runs on Windows. PHP runs on Windows and many flavors of unix. I prefer to run my back end servers on Linux because it's simply more secure than Windows. A properly configured Linux/BSD/Unix box will be much more difficult to hack. Having said that there are always security advisories for every OS, Windows just usually has more of them.

2) ASP is more expensive. You'll need a windows server for your production environment, plus I would lean towards the fact that the Unix server tend to be a bit less resource hungry than Windows. To gain the advantages of a rapid application development environment in ASP, you'll have to shell out some bucks for Visual Studio.

3) I much prefer Apache over IIS. I know the playing field is becoming much more even these days, but traditionally, Apache could handle load better than IIS.

In my opinion, .net is outmoded by several other solutions. Personally, I really dislike PHP and .NET equally, but why? I don't like PHP's structure and syntax, but there is strong appeal if it fits within your scope of programming skill; it is relatively easy to mix HTML and database functions/views, processing AJAX, etc. I'm saying the environment is easy to get into. Most lesser expensive Hosts will support PHP better than .NET... and yet .NET may have some performance advantages in HIGHER LEVEL applications. IMO, if you're just starting, or just building your suite of protocols and applications, PHP is going to produce better results for you, whereas the benefits of .NET produce long term and at a higher level. If you're considering .NET, why not consider Ruby?

PHP is always simple, easy, and best

for my suggestion is PHP ... buz it's very easy implementation when you are creating dynamic website

Mostly website developer prefer PHP because PHP is the best programming Language for developer

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Well both the languages are having their own importance.Sometimes ASP.net looks good and sometimes php but i would prefer asp over php because asp provide results for long term.ASP is more safer than php.But some drawbacks are also their while using it.First one is that it is quite expensive as compared to the php and the other one is the working operating system.ASP works only on windows but php works on windows as well as some other kinds of operating system

I will vote for PHP. It is very easy to learn PHP with the help of online resource. The best thing is that all the CMS like wordpress, joomla, drupal, oscommerce are built in PHP. As a begineeer I will say that I start PHP after working with CMS based website.

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I vote for php

all of my sites are written on php

it also depends, because I started from php, I can now reuse some code for new sites

If you're new to both languages I do recommend going with PHP as it'll be easier to learn, it will have way less hosting & coding tool costs.

Plus it has better community support behind it, so you will always find answers easier for questions you have about it.

If you are not going to be the one programming... should it really matter?

Go with whichever is cheaper to hire developers to use and can do your job faster..

which is PHP by the way LOL!

I live, eat, and breathe PHP. Also if your taking frameworks I might recomend QCodo/MJax. QCodo is a great back end and MJax offers jQuery support for the front end.

Disclaimer I am a big contributor to both.

.Net is good if you like killing brain cells. JK

I'd go with PHP because it has a better community support. Also, there are a lot of frameworks available for it (a framework is a collection of ready made pieces of functionality that makes your life as a programmer much easier). I've been working with PHP for about 12 years now and that says a lot about the maturity of the language.

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For me its php.. Since u are a beginner it's the best to use php..
Using net is expensive..They only the same in purpose for me..But I rather to choose the php..Try it..

Go with PHP unless you enjoy pulling your hair out and a huge timely learning curve. Anything PHP you need is just a google search away. I'd recommend using easyPHP for local Windows development. With PHP you can have something online in a weekend, with .NET that's less do-able.

I prefer .Net over PHP.

PHP all the way!

PHP is my favourite. It's simple and loosely typed.
Try PHP first.

php for sure, it's an open standard.

It also depends on what your needs may be for custom functionality. It is accurate to say there are far more php programmers than .Net programmers, so it will be easier to find someone to develop a complex custom feature with php. There may also be limitations to the .Net framework that do not apply to php. For example, try programming a .Net website to transcode video --it's not happening

Php is slower, unless your server admin knows how to make it fast; and in that case, it can be FASTER than .Net.

We recommend php.

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Both are in demand, anywhere you go. It depends on your taste. When you start getting into the development community, you'll hear a lot of "PHP sucks" talk. To me, it doesn't suck...it just isn't as useful as .NET, and where it IS useful, you have to work harder.

We can create dynamic website by using both. But, i give importance to PHP because it is widely used in many websites in today's world and also it is open source and integrated well with MySql.

According to me i prefer asp.net . Just because i am familiar with asp.net than php.

Well, ASP, and .net were created by a company that was trying, and may AGAIN, to take over the internet. They managed close to a 30% saturation. They EVEN peaked at 40%, around 2008! They are now at 20% and DROPPING! YEP, ever since that 2008 peak! The LEADER, Apache, is at about 62% and climbing. And most of the remainder are derived from Apache! Who sells those? IBM and Oracle to name just two! HECK, Oracle bought sun, so you KNOW where THEY are at!

So I would say to stick with the standard multiplatform PHP rather than the proprietary ASP.NET, most Windows, really only fully functional on windows foundation.

The ONLY advantage I see for a seller for ASP.NET is that it can be somewhat obfuscated, like Java.

Steve

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Both are same but php is some more easy to use and easy to learn. Nowadays many companies are turn on php. has much better support for the database management system, MySQL. In fact, the very popular blogging platform, WordPress uses the formidable combination of PHP coding on MySQL for its content management system, which includes about hundreds of thousands of blog posts every single day.

PHP hands down. It is easier and more practical. There is a reason why it is used by majority of websites today.

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I think it's pretty clear by now that PHP is the winner but I just wanted to show my love for PHP.

They both have their advantages...PHP is easier...ASP.net MVC its quite powerful with lot of features

It depends on your abilities. But making a script using php is easier and cheaper in most cases and i myself prefer using php.

PHP - Open Source
ASP.NET - Is it?

I tried to use both of them. Both of them are very powerful Web Development Tool. But as everyone says, it still falls on your preference.

Personally, I know PHP more than ASP.NET. But I am not saying ASP.NET is less than PHP.

The only distinctive difference to both of them (except for the code of course) is:
* PHP can be, or not be, written on MVC
* ASP.NET is MVC

Different projects, different demands.

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The reason PHP is better is because it doesn't require any expensive licensees or IIS to run it. You can run LAMP (Linux Apache Mysql and PHP) for Free and hosting is inexpensive. 7.95 per month or so. IIS might be better for other applications but generally speaking the Internet is build on LAMP

For me it's PHP I believe that PHP is so powerful

go for php

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hello,
I love PHP but I can say that .net has their own property and PHP has their own. Clear concepts you can work on any language.

1. PHP is like an open source .NET.

You can’t compare PHP with .NET. .NET is an application framework (an environment for building and executing applications) not a programming language; it’s like comparing a truck to a road. PHP can, however, be compared to languages which run under .NET, such as ASP+ or C# (referred to as "Language.NET" here).


2. .NET is going to be the future of the Internet!

.NET is the future platform for all Microsoft technology — it’s not aimed solely at the Internet. In fact, it’s likely to make its first big appearance on corporate Intranets, with Office.NET and .NET versions of existing Windows NT server software.
3. .NET is the best technology for building a Website.
Both PHP and "Language.NET" are viable solutions for Web building. Whether it’s delivering a dynamic Web page generated from a database, sending an email, or interfacing with a payment gateway, both are perfectly capable. In assessing them as technologies for building your site, the only significant difference is the price. Try asking yourself "So how much does it cost to host this ASP.NET page I just wrote?"


4. PHP is not compiled, other than when it’s interpreted at runtime, whereas .NET enjoys all the benefits of being compiled.

Here’s news for the .NET crowd — you’ve finally caught up! Microsoft’s use of the word "compiled" in regard to .NET is not what a C++ coder would call "compiled". Zend, the corporate face of the PHP project, have been doing this for a while now with PHP Accelerator (for a free equivalent, try php-accelerator.co.uk). Unfortunately for Zend, they chose to describe what Accelerator does as "advanced caching" (read more on what Zend means by "caching"). For more technical detail, try this thread at SitePoint Forums.


5. ASP.NET has accountable support. PHP has none.

Apart from the support services offered by Zend (effectively PHP’s creators), NuSphere, ThinkPHP and other corporations also provide support for PHP. You don’t need it, thanks to the ever-expanding PHP community being what it is, but if your boss wants someone credible to blame, there’s more than enough choice!


6. .NET supports multiple languages. PHP doesn’t.

Try Java for PHP or the upcoming Python extension. Obviously this isn’t quite the same as C# or J# but the point needs to be made — PHP is very flexible, and offers useful solutions for the Internet. Don’t expect to find yourself to be writing a successful Website in Cobol.NET — it’s likely each .NET language will eventually "tune in" to a particular type of application development.


7. Language.NET has superior object orientation.

For those who know PHP and its limitations, you may be amused by this .NET FAQ — sound familiar? In fact with PHP 4.3 in the wings, it may be that PHP can claim superior OO support, when you consider that FAQ.


What is significantly different is "Language.NET" will force you into an object oriented approach from the start, while PHP won’t. The Web typically does not require OO — for your average dynamic Website, a few "hacked" scripts are perfectly fine if they meets the site’s requirements. Deliver a live site now, rather than a beautifully abstract piece of code that’s ready one year after it’s needed. Paraphrasing SitePoint’s recent interview with Rasmus Lerdorf, PHP’s down-to-earth approach to problem solving is what has made it a success. And when you need OO, it’s there waiting for you.


8. .NET offers superior templating and web development features.


Microsoft has come up with some nice features with .NET that are certainly enticing, like the datagrid, and the templating mechanism. But you could easily reproduce these with a little PHP (try DaDaBIK, for example).
The basic notion of templating is to separate logic from content, so those with artistic skills can make a site that looks good, while developers apply the code "behind the scenes". How Web designers feel about working with .NET’s templating system remains to be seen. With PHP, rather than being forced into a single approach, you have the choice of numerous Open Source projects (Smarty, Pat Template, etc.).


9. But corporations don’t like PHP.

Well apart from CBS, PHP is used on the corporate sites of Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, Switzerland’s Bluewin, and a whole load more you’ll find here. You frequently wont realise when you’re viewing a PHP-based site, because you’re not forced to use the default .php file extension (PHP often appears as .shtml or phtml).
Also, have a look at the results of this job search — not bad.
And as ezPublish demonstrates, corporations aren’t just using PHP, companies like Siemens are prepared to go into partnership to sell PHP applications to their customers.

10. PHP is doomed!

This is doubtful. In fact in June 2002, PHP overtook ASP to become the first Open Source project to start from behind, and become more popular than the bespoke Microsoft solution. With IIS going into decline against Apache as a result of the Apache 2.0 release and IIS’s poor security record, the gap will only widen.
The .NET framework has only one real edge over PHP, which won’t be making itself apparent for a long time yet: with .NET, you can write an application that will run natively on Windows clients and is delivered from a Website. Microsoft has a long way to go with security before it will be able to unleash that on the Internet — and even when that time comes, browsers and content delivery may be sufficiently advanced to make it irrelevant.

Via: http://www.sitepoint.com/php-top-10-net-myths-exposed/

PHP, however, you should find a good MVC (model view controller) framework to place your code in. It will help to make your sites and projects MUCH more manageable. And if you are having people develop for you, you definitely want to enforce this, else you can end up with a large unmanageable spaghetti mess. I like Codeigniter, but there are others like Zend and many others... Just search "PHP MVC frameworks"

Both play prominent role in designing a website go for both

Both are important in making a site. learn both of them

I don't think this has been mentioned yet, but with PHP you have the advantage of an extensive perfectly-organized documentation. While it's arguable Microsoft's documentation is good (they sure have improved it in recent years), I still think PHP.NET/{FUNCTIONNAME} cant be beat, you get all the details and nice community replies to help you.

I use PHP as my main langauge for my websites and web applications. I program in C# on client side and Java as well. Despite the fact that M$ and Java do have advantages over PHP, mainly in corporate support and in terms of security and corporate compliance to security policies.

Plus you'll have a lot easier time finding help with PHP.

PHP is platform independent. It can run on anything from an AS/400, Unix, Linux, Microsoft, or MACOSX. PHP is Open Source, that is, that it is a community developed and supported product.

Hi,

I am an well experienced programmer in asp.net, dotnetnuke, joomla, wordpress.
I prefer only wordpress and we cant find any alternatives to wordpress. WordPress is coded in php and it is a robust language. So you must concentrate on php and .net.

.net is using mainly by organizations for manipulating/maintaining their own or client's applications. But when you to come to internet, u will be seeing most of the sites are developed using php. So you decide, where to go.

I would go with .net mainly for the reason that it's very very well known and compatible.

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I will prefer .NET.....its better to use...

yeah i agree people are biased towards php. Because its open source and is updated rarely. On the other hand microsoft releases a new .net version every year i guess. So people find it tough to learn. I am studying asp.net right now and i love it. I find it pretty easy actually but again i haven't used php so my opinion may be biased too

Definitely, php

There are many reasons. Scalability, easy of coding, available resources etc etc

Vote for PHP

PHP are basically up as well as running right away. All you need is an apache server with PHP and MySQL and you are ready to go. There are complete bundles with all of this admitted so they don't even need to download all the individual components separately.

PHP is quick to learn, and the frameworks will (as the others mentioned) speed up your dev. time.

Dear,
PHP is Simple , Best and Quick website.

hi.....
php is gud bcz it is easy nd pHP open source matters

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I love PHP but I can say that other languages also good.I also like to learn PHP but its to hard

I think PHP is best and easy.

PHP and .NET, both are programming language. but in my opinion .net is a best, because .NET is a platforn independent we can run any application on .net platform. and we can maintain high security in .net. php is a open source language, so difficult to maintain security in PHP. so .NET is a best.

It depends on what you really good at, .Net is great programming language but it is so hard but do anything you could dream of. but PHP is so fast and progressive. you can use WordPress with some PHP script to do any website so fast and easily.

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It's mostly personal preference, I prefer to use PHP as it's open source and has a much better community.

I think Php is better. it is easy to understand, host and coding.

I think .net is much batter then PHP for making a dynamic website because PHP is open source and not secure as compared to .net

When i create websites now its solely in PHP as its easier and WAY more affordable to find offshore and local talent on the cheap.

PHP are basically up as well as running right away. All you need is an apache server with PHP and MySQL and you are ready to go. There are complete bundles with all of this admitted so they don't even need to download all the individual components separately.

This is a way better topic than "PHP vs ASP(Classic)" -- Thank you for some intelligent comparisons.

My preference is PHP.

PHP is fast, free.. many webhosts compatible with PHP..

1. PHP is like an open source .NET.

You can't compare PHP with .NET. .NET is an application framework (an environment for building and executing applications) not a programming language; it's like comparing a truck to a road. PHP can, however, be compared to languages which run under .NET, such as ASP+ or C# (referred to as "Language.NET" here).

2. .NET is going to be the future of the Internet!

.NET is the future platform for all Microsoft technology -- it's not aimed solely at the Internet. In fact, it's likely to make its first big appearance on corporate Intranets, with Office.NET and .NET versions of existing Windows NT server software.

I would like PHP is a better choice for beginners, because you can use it completely free. There are excellent free IDE and a complete server stack is free, and almost every host offers PHP. ASP.NET usually requires a Windows Server and the Visual Studio IDE, this is quite expensive.

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