When it comes to Web Development there are two options; either you decide to code in PHP or you chose ASP.NET. This is a tough choice however one either a programmer or a client chooses one they are unlikely to change their decision.

However that are a few programmers I personally know that took the middle road and tried becoming a master at both. From what I have seen so far this the programming career of those who did that hasn’t worked out quite well. On the other hand I should mention that they make project managers and I speak this from personal experience. I am of course referring to what happened to a college of mine.

As for myself I started out with mastering C and C++ and when thing started shifting towards the Internet, my first taste of programming for the Internet or Web Development was ASP. With little time to spare at the time I opted learn PHP which seemed very similar to C and C++ and then take a crash course in ASP for the Internet. Before I knew it I had become a PHP developer and there was no stopping me. In spite the fact I did get around to learning ASP.NET (C#) and C Sharp; till date I have launched only one website on the windows platform that uses C# and ASP.NET against the 500 PHP websites developed and launched by me.

That was a short tale about my personal experience and in no way biased. To be fair we shall have a brief look at what the statistics have to say.

Message in the Statistics:

• There are statistics for everything these days and at times there are multiple studies conducted by different organizations whose results don’t always agree. It is almost as if some organizations play the statistics card just to send an appropriate message across. However as long as you do take the result of a survey in the form of statistics in the right context you should be fine.

• A study conducted on the job front domain has resulted in more or less consistent data since the past two years. As per these statistics the year 2014 has been a good year for Java programmers with PHP coming at a close second. It is quite surprising to find C# lagging way behind and in fact ASP.NET bringing up the rear. The previous year (2013) had similar results however at that time PHP was on the top with Java a close second.

• But why stop at one survey when there are multiple surveys carried out, each using a different source. The very popular course provider Lynda.com too conducted a survey on the popularity of a language. Their results were quite the opposite. While Java was still at the top, this time C# was listed at number 4 place and PHP a close 6^th. However to keep it in context this was primarily dealing with the new and fresh developers).

• In yet another survey which again used a different approach the results were different again. The survey that was carried out on the basis of the frequency of project at a popular hub listed JavaScript as being the most popular with Java this time a close second. The two languages in question, PHP and C# came as 3^rd and 4^th respectively.

• At the end of the day it is important to interpret the correct message that the statistics convey by keeping it in context. The golden rule is to not to use the statistics as the sole factor to make a decision.

The experienced folks:

• There are many programmers out there already. Many of them started with the IBM PC and a 8 bit machine. It is likely that these developers have started at the very bottom (well almost) like Basic. Some of them proficient at the comparatively new Java programming language while others are experts at C or C++. Either way for an experienced developer a new language that has its in C or C++ is easy to grasp.

• When it comes to the design and structure of the code; PHP is based on C and C++. Hence it is not much of a learning curve for those who are already familiar with C++ programming language.

• The same with C#. As the name suggest does have more than just a name that is similar to the C++ language. A lot many new features and functions have been added to the language making it easier to adapt with ASP.NET for Web development.

• I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the experienced developers choose to be experts at both PHP and ASP.NET.

The pic for the Newbies:

• A great many of the new generation programmers have grown up in the Internet age and the next batch of developers will probably remember growing up in the Mobile age at the rate at which the popularity of the mobile devices and tablets is growing.

• The new developers probably learned HTML to start off along with CSS and JavaScript. JavaScript is a lot like C++ and Java when it comes to the syntax.

• I can imagine there would be some confusion on where to start with there being so many languages to choose from. The best option in my opinion wold be to choose JavaScript as the first programming language. The reason being that the syntax of this language is very similar to that of C and C++ (which in itself is a good base) and makes also promotes good coding practice.

• At the same time JavaScript is not that powerful and hence you are less likely to cause any harm when using it. When it is comes to learning a server side language for dynamic websites PHP and ASP.NET are usually on the top of the list. In my professional career I have found many web developers in india who have been recruited straight out of their college (possibly by campus interviews) and quite good at ASP.NET and C#. The reason is quite obvious. It is mainly because many of the educational institutes do have the subject or programming language taught at the university.

• On the other hand I haven’t found many educational institute offering training in PHP. Over the years I have happened to come across several PHP programmers, and many of them have little knowledge of PHP to start with. They are often hired due their good degree and score at the university exams. The actual coding of PHP is something most of them learn while on the job.

• This is possible because the learning curve for PHP is not very high. If you are from the Information Technology background, PHP may not be that hard.

The Verdict:

• There is no clear winner when it comes to the battle between PHP and ASP.NET. On one hand there is PHP which is one of the most popular scripting languages on the Internet (with millions of developers using it), and on the other hand is ASP.Net which is a massive platform supported by none other than Microsoft themselves; with the ability to use any of the .NET supported languages.

• PHP is an open source language and is also completely free. Even the hosting platform is comparatively more economical since it can be hosted on Linux whereas ASP.Net websites need to be hosted on a Licenced Windows Platform. When it comes to a developing environment, there are several open source editors available for PHP however for ASP.Net if you want to be free from limitations and restrictions you will need the latest Visual Studio version from Microsoft which is not exactly free. Thus in terms of cost, PHP is a clear winner.

• Both PHP and ASP.NET are equally scalable though. Since both PHP and ASP.NET are so different and use different platforms there performance is bound to differ. However Linux severs can be highly optimized and made very efficient. Besides which the windows file system NTFS is somewhat inferior to the Linux one EXT4 thus that goo affects the performance.

• There are many followers when it comes to PHP and you are more likely to get help regarding our issue in a forum online than if you are using ASP.NET. The bottom line in my opinion is that unless you are already familiar with ASP.Net or want to make sure you are one of those who require the MicroSoft tag then by all means go for ASP.NET . At the end of the day personal preference also makes a difference and often prevails.

Alakmalak amidst the war:

Alakmalak is a web design and development firm in india that has been around for quite a while now. The have had the good fortune of completing more than 2000 project and are still going strong. Having recognized the advantages of both the programming languages Alamalak has had two different team of programmers from the very beginning.                                                                                              

• PHP vs ASP .NET
• web design and development
• web developers in india
• Web Development