PHP vs ASP- If you’ve looked at web hosting, you’ve probably seen PHP and ASP offered as freebies with some packages. Read this article by Best PHP Web Hosting to learn more about PHP and ASP and why you might prefer one over the other. PHP vs ASP!

What Is PHP?

PHP stands for PHP: Hypertest Preprocessor. Like GNU, which stands for "GNU’s not Unix," PHP is a self-referential or "recursive" acronym. PHP is a scripting language used for web development and capable of being embedded into HTML. As of this writing in August, 2010, the current version of PHP is 5.3.3, which was released in July of 2010. PHP is mainly used in three ways: for server-side scripting, command-line scripting, and for writing desktop applications.

In order to create server-side scripting with PHP, you need a CGI or server module to serve as a PHP parser, as well as a web server and a web browser. It is frequently used for dynamic web pages, transferring data from a database to a webpage presentation. For command line scripting, you can do without the web server and web browser. Though it is not common to create desktop applications in PHP because it is not the best language for the job, the extension PHP-GTK (GIMP Tool Kit) is sometimes put to this purpose and is capable of creating cross-platform apps.

PHP often forms part of the combination of open source software that runs under Linux (not Windows) called LAMP. It stands for Linux software installed along with an Apache web server, mySQL databases, and the web scripting language Perl, PHP, or Python. It is referred to as a solution stack. PHP can be, and often is, included in Windows server installations as well and can interface with other databases besides mySQL.

ASP stands for Active Server Page. ASP is a proprietary web server technology from Microsoft. Working with HTML and programming code written in Jscript or VBScript—both used for ActiveX scripting, an ASP page can be dynamic and allow for user interaction, as the name "active server page" suggests. ASP is used in a Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) environment and with Microsoft proprietary databases (MS-SQL, rather than mySQL). It was introduced with IIS version 3.0. The current version as of August 2010 is IIS 7.0. Like LAMP, Microsoft’s .NET architecture is a solution stack, but its scripting plug-ins are available for Python, PERL, and REXX, not PHP. ASP can run with Linux using Apache::ASP, which provides an ASP port to an Apache web server—but only with PERL scripting.

PHP and ASP can both be used to create dynamic web content, but they don’t work together. This may place people in the position of having to choose between them. What criteria should be used? There are several major considerations.

•　If you need to have a Linux or Windows server for other reasons—such as cost (Linux web hosting is pretty inevitably cheaper than Windows hosting)—this may help you make the decision, because Linux will rule out ASP.

•　If your programmer is far more familiar with an ASP or LAMP environment, this is another persuasive point. The languages are quite different, with ASP having more complexity, and PHP being designed for simplicity.

•　If you need to employ other software that will only work on Linux or Windows, then that is a third important reason that may propel you towards one or the other language.

•　Other considerations may include the fact that PHP is faster; that it is based on C++, and that it is generally more flexible about the environments in which it can work.

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