Hi I'm paying to have a website built and the firm that I am using has offered me a choice between php/MySQL and ASP/SQLserver. Now they want extra money and a extra week to code the project in ASP/SQLserver but they suggest that this will have a dramatic improvement speed over php, since they can use stored procedures and so on..

The thing is I don't know much about his, the website should have quite a heavy amount of traffic so I am slightly worried, by they do seem to try and get money out of me for every little thing, so I wanted to get some one who knows about it's advice. Would Php be a lot slower, I've always been a fan of Linux rather than Microsoft.

Any advice greatly recieved, Cheers Nixies

Well, From what I have heard ASP is quicker.

How much of a difference are they talking?

Not a huge amount of money, but about a week delay in the go live date.

From everything that I've read, ASP is a lot slower then PHP is (for example, connecting to a database means using COM -- unnecessary overhead).

ASP.NET, on the other hand, should be best if the website is expected to be under heavy load.

Thats an excelent point chroder.

PHP has to connect to database as well. So I really do not see the big difference.

I agree though with ASP.NET. If they are not using that then you might as well go with php/mysql.

Hi

I think the question you should be asking is not to people here but the firm building your system! PHP is on the same par as ASP as is any other web language! The problems you might have is with the people who are developing your solution! Hire a consultand that can over see this firms developing, as this is the only way to protect your self from shady coding! Trust me, I say this because of experience, anyone who tells you to use ASP over another language, tells me that they have inadequate knowledge of what they are talking about! The language core will never be the services down fall!

In this case it will depend more on what you will be more comfortable running (i.e.: Linux, Apache or Win, IIS) and nothing more! When I teach Perl and PHP workshops, I always hear this same question from seasoned MS certified SO(s), and I always answer it like so...


Programming bad logic is the only thing that will cause a network service to die an early death! Never blame the scripting language for your own irresponsible design!

So in closing, PHP like Perl can run super big network services just like ASP, and in most cases much bettter than ASP! Better because the core of these other languages have a better array of support for network and IO type handling built into thier core!


Sonia

I do not entirely agree with that. Some languages are better suited for different environments. You cannot simply dismiss what strengths and weaknesses a language has over another.

I think the popular scripting languages of today can all be used in similar situations, but which is best for the job is another story entirely.

If they are using ASP then I can see why it would take them longer to create the site, however if they are using ASP.NET then it should take them less time, IMHO.

It's also difficult to judge which would be better without knowing exactly what the intended use is.

Pros of ASP:

ASP and ASP.NET is best for Windows.
Simple and effective.
There is more money to make for MS developers

Cons of ASP:

It is bloatware.
Proprietary.

Pros of PHP:
Huge Library of Information on the internet.
Open Source.
Learning curve is short.
It is petite and fast in all platforms.

Cons of PHP:

There is not much money to make in PHP/ Opensource development.