Server side scripting languages comparison
The table below provides a comparison of each of the most common server side scripting languages available in the market today (W3Techs 2012 – see above).
All information contained in the table is derived from the sources listed in the References for Language Comparisons section of References.
| PHP | ASP.Net | JSP | ColdFusion | Python | |
| Developer | The PHP Group | Microsoft Corporation | Adobe (previously Macromedia) | Oracle (previously Sun Microsystems) | Python Software Foundation |
| …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… |
| Cost | Free download and hosting on open-source Linux server. | Free download but possible Windows hosting cost (although see Operating System comparison below). | Free download and hosting on open source Linux server. | Free download and must be hosted on Adobe web server (although many open source servers have been developed). | Free download and hosting on open-source Linux server. |
| …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… |
| Ease of use | Simple, text based language with numerous online tutorials. | Easy to use particularly with Microsoft’s integrated development environment software, WebMatrix. | More complex to learn. Also, using JSP requires some knowledge of Java programming language. | Simple, text based language with similar syntax to HTML but may require some knowledge of Java programming language. | Programming language. More complex to learn but voted best language for beginners serious about learning programming. |
| …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… |
| Web hosting and web browser compatibility | PHP is hosted by most, if not all, web servers in Australia. PHP has cross-browser compatibility. | ASP.NET is hosted by most webs servers in Australia. ASP.NET has cross-browser compatibility but may require further scripting to resolve issues for Chrome and Safari browsers. | JSP hosting requires a servlet container such as Apache tomcat. JSP is hosted by most web servers in Australia although the more expensive form of private hosting may be required. JSP has cross-browser compatibility. | ColdFusion is hosted only by a few web servers in Australia. The latest version of ColdFusion (being ColdFusion 10) appears to have cross-browser and cross-device compatibility, and has been developed to support with HTML5 videos. | Python is currently only hosted by a few web servers in Australia although increasing usage of the language will likely increase demand for hosting services. Python has cross-browser compatibility. |
| …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… |
| Implementation language | C based language. | .NET languages (C# based language). | Java language (C based language). | C/C++ based languages and Java language. | C/C++ based languages and Java language. |
| …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… |
| Operating system | All modern operating systems including mobile platforms (iOS and Android). | Platform dependent –Windows operating system required to develop in ASP.NET (although Mono Project has developed an alternative open-source UNIX version for cross-platform purposes). | All modern operating systems including mobile platforms (iOS and Android). | Most modern operating systems except for iOS. | All modern operating systems. |
| …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… |
| Security | Relatively vulnerable – 295 PHP linked vulnerability records in the National Vulnerability Database over the last 3 months (but could be explained by the significantly higher usage of PHP in websites than ASP.NET). | No ASP.NET linked vulnerability records listed in the National Vulnerability Database over the last 3 months (but there were 25 over the last 3 years). | 4 JSP related vulnerability records listed in the National Vulnerability Database over the last 3 months. | 2 ColdFusion related vulnerability records listed in the National Vulnerability Database over the last 3 months. | 7 Python related vulnerability records listed in the National Vulnerability Database over the last 3 months. |
| …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… |
| Best computer programming language to learn as a first language | 4% of votes. | 5% of votes for ‘Visual Basic’. | 16% of votes for ‘Java’ (not limited to just JSP). | Not listed. | 26.5% of votes. |
| …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… |
| Best computer programming language for the next decade | 24% of votes. | 15% of votes. | 49% of votes for ‘Java’. | Not listed. | 29% of votes. |
| …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… |
| Best or most useful scripting language | 13.8% of votes in Readers’ Choice Awards 2012. 8% of votes in Slashdot poll. | Not listed in Readers’ Choice Awards 2012. Not listed in Slashdot poll. | Not listed in Readers’ Choice Awards 2012. Not listed in Slashdot poll (only JavaScript is listed). | Not listed in Readers’ Choice Awards 2012. Not listed in Slashdot poll. | 36.6% of votes in Readers’ Choice Awards 2012. 28% of votes in Slashdot poll. |
| …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… |
| Current popularity | 6th position in the Tiobe Programming Community Index. Est 48% of searches for ‘PHP’ in search engines. | 7th position in the Tiobe Programming Community Index. Est 17% of searches for ‘Visual Basic’ in search engines. | 2nd position in the Tiobe Programming Community Index. Est 70% of searches for ‘Java’ in search engines (not limited to just JSP). | 50th position in the Tiobe Programming Community Index. Est 3% of searches for ‘ColdFusion’ in search engines. | 8th position in the Tiobe Programming Community Index. Est 30% of searches for ‘Python’ in search engines. |
| …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… | …………… |
| Future prospects in the marketplace | Solid. Remained as a top ten language for the past 5 years, most top websites use PHP as a core scripting language. | Relatively poor, appears to be on the decline even though the language is used in a significant number of top websites. | The Java programming language is strong as a whole benefitting JSP as a scripting language based on Java. | Appears to be on the decline. | Solid and highly regarded. Very popular scripting (and programming) language. |