ASP Web Development

Active Server Pages (ASP) represent Microsoft's entry into the arena of options for server side web scripting. ASP is comparable in many ways to PHP and ColdFusion.

 

What is ASP?

As mentioned previously, ASP is comparable in ways to PHP and ColdFusion, but ASP more of a scripting environment than an actual language. So although most ASP pages are written in Visual Basic script, other options in Perl, Microsoft's version of JavaScript or others. Quick prototyping of ASP based applications is usually possible due to the inherent ease of use provided by Visual Basic as well as the number of available libraries.

 

ASP versus PHP

The cost of operating an ASP application is typically greater than a PHP web application due to the fact that ASP applications run on a Windows server that requires licenses for IIS and the Microsoft SQL database. This hosting option is almost unilaterally more expensive than an open source based Linux server running mySQL. Additionally, most consider PHP applications to be more performant than their ASP counterparts due to less overhead in its underlying architecture.

 

On the plus side for ASP is the fact that corporate customers value and trust Microsoft products and may have a large infrastructure in place of existing Microsoft products. Moving to ASP provides an easier upgrade path for them and since the ASP language is similar to Microsoft Visual Basic developing in ASP also allows them to leverage the existing knowledge base within their company.

 

So, in summary, strong cases can be made for developing applications in either ASP or PHP, but ASP is most often chosen by large enterprise customers with an installed Microsoft base, while PHP is chosen by smaller companies or those starting with a greenfield application.