ASP.NET for web applications

.NET
1

I’m not sure how to work this without starting a PHP vs .NET war.

We’ve been providing web development outsourcing to marketing agencies for a few years now, mainly PHP/HTML/CSS/Javascript.

We’re at a point where we are planning forward and looking to the future of the business. We’ve decided that the business will soon split into two parts;

  1. The main business concentrating only on web applications
  2. Our existing business which will continue to provide web development outsourcing and suppling agencies with websites using our own Agency Branded CMS.

A few years ago I worked with ASP.NET a bit, and liked it, I really wanted to start using it but I couldn’t come up with a valid reason of why I should concentrate my efforts on .NET rather than PHP, given at the time I had far more experience using PHP. I believe at the time I found community support for .NET a little lacking in comparison to PHP.

Anyway, my question is. Now we’re splitting the business, would it be better for us as a business to concentrate the web application side of the business on using .NET? Really to the client I know there’s very little difference and most really don’t care how the application is built providing it suites their needs, but I guess I want us to be a little different, everyone these days uses PHP (especially the bedroom coders). I guess in my mind I’m thinking that offering .NET web applications makes us a little different to the competition and opens of the chance of getting larger projects (especially government and corporate).

My biggest issue I guess is that I’ve used PHP for years, and although I wouldn’t say I’m an expert, I can do some fairly good stuff with it. I’ve used .NET and built a couple of projects using it over the years, but my knowledge isn’t as good as my PHP knowledge so I’d need to invest some time into brushing up my skills and improving them. Is the investment going to be worth it? or are we simply best sticking with PHP.

2

If you feel you can offer ASP.NET services then I say absolutely go for it.

Like it or not, but .NET development pays a lot better than PHP. There are a large number of businesses that use ASP.NET, and if you decide to go down that route I’d be shocked if you didn’t find work. I work as a .NET developer and I’m constantly hounded by recruiters. New projects will be fine in ASP.NET MVC, and I’d be shocked if you couldn’t land some good C# devs.

3

I’m an ASP.NET convert. I used to do a lot of PHP and my first job was a .NET job. I’ve loved it since. There are just things that are much easier to do in .NET than in PHP, likewise, there are things easier to do in PHP than .NET, but needless to say, both languages will be around for a long while.

Any investment in .NET will be worth your while. Especially when it becomes second nature. You’ll be amazed at some of the opportunities out there around .NET that you won’t be able to have sticking with PHP. .NET has roles in desktop software, financial systems, engineering, etc. There is a lot of different aspects you can get into just by knowing the language.