Both ASP.NET and PHP have been around for a long time but still remain popular technologies for web development. Together, these two languages take up a large portion of the market share of the web development space, leading to the desire to compare and contrast the two. In this article, we’ll take a look at the most crucial criteria for developers - app performance, security, costs, and user experience across ASP.NET and PHP.

But first things first, what are ASP.NET and PHP - and what are their core features?

ASP.NET

ASP.NET is a Microsoft-built web development platform that allows you to create high performance, dynamic web pages. Being a cross-platform technology, ASP.NET is a framework that can deliver web applications for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

ASP.NET Features

MVP (Model-View-Presenter) and Web API

Instead of using two separate methodologies for development, you can now use ASP.NET’s combination of both MVP and Web API for simpler and faster development. The MVP design pattern offers functionality for building web applications and making them easy to test, whereas Web APIs are applicable for any platform that runs on browsers and mobile devices.

Protection against cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks

These type of attacks occur when a web browser is tricked into performing a certain action on a website. CSRF attacks can lead to fraud, data breaches and theft - which can result in financial losses and damaged reputation. The way ASP.NET prevents these types of attacks is by generating anti-forgery tokens that proceed with the action only after successful validation of its origin.

Multilingual technology

Although the most common ASP.NET languages are C# and VB.NET, it also supports HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Basically, you can use any .NET-supported language to build web applications with ASP.NET.

PHP

PHP is a general-purpose scripting language that is also commonly used for developing web applications across platforms. It is a server-side scripting language suited for large projects.

PHP Features

PHPUnit

Testing has become such a vital part of the development process that it is no longer an afterthought, but a continuous part of the software lifecycle. PHPUnit allows web developers to efficiently execute unit tests without spending too much time on them. PHPUnit also offers coding assistance and accelerates the process of writing and performing tests.

Database support

PHP is known for its smooth integration with a wide array of databases such as SQLite, MySQL, Oracle, Sybase, and many others. PHP provides libraries to interact with different databases and is a perfect language for a project that requires frequent communication with databases.

High grade of automation

Software development is not only about writing code, it involves a number of additional supporting tasks. Using PHP, developers can automate mundane tasks like caching, authentication, URL mapping, etc., and focus on writing clear and functional code instead.

ASP.NET vs PHP

Speed and performance

When it comes to performance and velocity, ASP.NET takes the lead due to its accurate and systematic coding. While PHP does not support threading, ASP.NET enables parallel programming, which accelerates the development cycle.

Market share

In this round, the obvious winner is PHP with an impressive 46% of market share, whereas ASP.NET holds 18%. PHP is significantly more popular than ASP.NET with 79.1% of all researched by W3techs websites using this language, while ASP.NET shows only 8.9%.

Security

It is more difficult to choose the winner in security, due to the two very different approaches that these technologies take. ASP.NET comes with a built-in set of security features that automatically protect your data when needed. PHP, on the other hand, provides you with a variety of tools that you can utilize to secure your application. Therefore, if you do not know to use them, your work will not be sufficiently protected.

Cost

Since PHP is an open-source programming language and ASP.NET charges its users for hosting, PHP is obviously more cost-effective. However, ASP.NET’s fee is not high, and many developers choose this language despite the higher costs.

Community support

PHP is a much more popular language with wider and larger community support across the globe. On the other hand, ASP.NET’s relatively small community is full of dedicated people who are happy to contribute and share their know-how.

The verdict

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to the question of which technology is better - it depends entirely on the project. Both ASP.NET and PHP have their pros and cons as well as unique features which appeal to developers. If you would like to learn more about the languages, their frameworks, and other tools - or how they \can help in your project - contact CodeFirst. We are a team of software development professionals with years of experience, who deliver custom software with high performance, all while ensuring optimal user experience.