In the web development world, the choice of language in development for common use is reduced to two popular choices. Web applications, especially those that rely on database back-end, are typically created using any Microsoft ASP.Net language, or the alternative of open source PHP language. Reasons why one might choose one over the other may include: The cost of development tools, or availability of these tools, or even the comfort level with open source initiative. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of reasons why one might choose one over the other.

Active Server Pages or ASP has always been an option for creating dynamic web content. Active Server Pages facilitates the ability to use databases such as Access or SQL just to name a few, to create dynamic, feature-rich web sites. The work behind the scenes in service to the dynamic content is being done at the server level for the source code of Active Server Pages. Microsoft has spent a great deal of time and the promotion of their resources. Family Net ASP.Net programming languages ??that is a member. In order to develop with ASP.Net you must obtain the extremely expensive Microsoft Visual Studio Programming Suite. While expensive, Visual Studio is an asset to any programmer due to its many features. As with all Microsoft products, support and updates are constantly available to ASP.Net. Cutting the number of features that Microsoft packs into Visual Studio, along with broad support from Microsoft, which will undoubtedly make ASP. Net an attractive solution for the needs of any web development company, but the cost may be prohibitive, if not impossible to pay for individual web developer.

PHP is in its fifth revision now, is an Open Source web development language that also facilitates the creation of web sites with sophisticated and dynamic that can use databases. Being Open Source means simply that PHP is not owned by anyone. Just as with Active Server Pages, the work behind the scenes to serve dynamic web content is being done by PHP at the server level. As with most open source products, resources available for a PHP developer are free. This makes PHP extremely attractive to independent web developers. There are some commercial quality suites available for the development of companies like Zend, but there are also lots of free resources just a Google search away. Because there's really no corporate entity behind PHP, support and development in PHP is done by the community of users and developers themselves. Surprisingly, this does not appear to adversely affect the ability to find support for PHP.

However ASP.Net, PHP and are excellent options, offering basically the same functionality. If the decision reduces the initial investment cost, or level of comfort has regarding Open Source, or something completely different, the outcome depends on the mastery of any language you choose.