Why Use PHP?

There are thousands of programming languages available and every year, new programs are being made.  But only few of these have become sufficiently popular and are used by many people.   One of which is PHP or hypertext preprocessor.  It is a general-purpose server-side scripting language designed for web development.  It is installed on more than 20 million web sites and 1 million web servers.  Microsoft’s Active Server Page or ASP, a server-side script engine and a similar language to PHP, is one of PHP’s competitors.  They are both programming languages that are commonly used to create websites.  Both are more dynamic than the usual static html web pages and can allow users to interact and exchange information.

Here are some factors to consider in choosing between PHP and ASP.  ASP needs a Microsoft server for the website to work and will be requiring an ASP-Apache program installed for it to work on a Linux platform.  PHP, on the other hand, runs using Windows, Solaris, Linux or Unix and NT servers.  That’s why PHP is more popular than ASP.  PHP uses C/C++ as base language and most syntax are similar to each other while ASP is very similar to the syntax and interface of Visual Basic programming.  When it comes to cost and expenses, ASP is more expensive as it will require one to purchase Windows with IIS installed on the server and a MS-SQL database to work.  While PHP will only need a Linux server and connects to several databases, one of which is MySQL, which are both free.  Talking about speed, PHP runs it its own memory space which makes its loading speed quicker compared to ASP as it uses an overhead server.  Most tools that work on PHP program are open source software while one may need to purchase additional tools to work on ASP program.

Clearly, PHP has dominated when it comes to compatibility, popularity, cost, expenses, flexibility and a lot more but as users of the program, the choice is yours.