Difference Between ASP and PHP

May 2023 · 3 minute read

Main Difference

ASP and PHP are two development technologies used in web development particularly for generating dynamic web pages. Among various web languages these two are most popular web development and programming languages and used for the development of database driven websites. The purpose of this article is to critically analysis the both technologies and search for differences between them.

What is ASP?

Active Server Pages or ASP is the server side script engine of Microsoft used for developing dynamically generated web pages. It was released by Microsoft in 1996 and it runs inside IIS, Internet Information Services. It is built-in with multiple objects such as Application, ASPError, Request, Response, Session, Transfer Method, Execute Method and Server. Web pages with file extension of .asp and .aspx extension used ASP and ASP.NET respectively, which makes them faster in performing server side scripting services. Web programmers and developers used VBScript to write ASP pages. Microsoft has stopped further updates of its version since 2000. IIS, PWS, ChiliASP or InstantASP are required for compatibility of ASP.

What is PHP?

Hypertext Preprocessor or PHP is also a server side scripting and general purpose programming language developed by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995 for web development. Currently over 40% websites developers and web servers are using PHP. It is also based on HTML code and can be used with multiple templating engines and frameworks. On December 18, 2014, The PHP Group has released its latest version. It is based on C++ language and its structure is similar to C, C++, Java, TCL and Perl. Eclipse Helios 2010 is used as a platform and MySQL is used as a database server for PHP developers. Many auxiliary and assembling features like ftp, email sharing and encryption system makes the usage of PHP more easier and simpler and increases the performance too.

Key Differences

  • PHP is based on C++ language and its structure is similar to C, C++, Java, TCL and Perl while ASP is based on VBScript.
  • Operating system strength of PHP is more than ASP. PHP can be easily use on Linux, Unix and Windows operating system while ASP is mostly used on Windows operating system as it is developed by Microsoft.
  • Many auxiliary and assembling features like ftp, email sharing and encryption system is already included in PHP, which are totally neglected in ASP.
  • Both ASP and PHP are the technologies of ’90s. PHP regularly released its latest version within short intervals of time and remain up to date with latest development requirements. While ASP had been dysfunctional since 2000.
  • PHP performance and code speed is faster and easier than ASP.
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 is used as a platform for ASP developers while Eclipse Helios 2010 is used as a platform for PHP developers.
  • Sql server 2008 is used as a database server for ASP and MySQL database server is used for PHP.
  • Although PHP is simple easier than ASP but functions and controls of ASP are more efficient and reliable than PHP.
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