PHP Vs. Cold Fusion comparison

Panache

I am having a problem with a customer that currently has his e-commerce site running under Cold Fusion. We are trying to get his business and re-write his site. (Take my word, it needs to be re-written) javascript:smilie('🆒')
cool

Does anyone here have experience in both PHP and CF, enough that you could describe the good, bad and the ugly?

I may be all wet on this subject, but I believe that PHP is a far better medium than Cold Fusion hands down. I am in the management / sales end and just don't know enough to explain it to the customer.

Thanks.
😃 🙁

Stinger51

I don't know very much about Cold Fusion. In fact, when I first heard this term in a programmer's meeting a few years ago, I thought they were referring to the failed attempt of those two "scientists" in Utah in 1989. They convinced the world (almost) that they could achieve atomic fusion thru chemical means, and not via the forces of a hydrogen bomb explosion. Hence, it was dubbed "Cold Fusion."

I am in the same preplexed state with PHP vs. Java. It seems that PHP can do anything Java can do, with a lot less overhead, and a much smaller learning curve to boot for the uninitiated.

I'm putting my money on the PHP horse, which may be running way back in the pack right now. But I expect it will catch up fast, just as it is now doing in Germany. It's just to simple to develop with to be passed up.

Who needs another bloated dev package like Visual C++ or Java anyway, IMHO?

Simple is best.

stolzyboy

Originally posted by Stinger51
I am in the same preplexed state with PHP vs. Java. It seems that PHP can do anything Java can do, with a lot less overhead, and a much smaller learning curve to boot for the uninitiated.

much the same for php vs. cfm

speed reliability ease of use

and really who is your customer to tell you what language to use

just let him know that he'll be very satisfied with a php driven site over cfm

superwormy

You could def. plug the price thing with PHP vs. ColdFusion. ColdFusion costs a bundle.

ColdFusion is actually a pretty sweet product if you get to play with it, its worth experimenting with.

Weedpacket

You could also mention the more limited support for Cold Fusion in terms of hosting availability.

It seems Macromedia's pet sycophants are unable to come up with anything better than FUD; commentary in this thread about one of their articles may help you develop some arguments.

Panache

Thanks guys,

One of my part-timers emailed this to me last night and I though I would share it with you. If you hear of any more arguments or have an email address of someone that knows more, please pass it on. Thanks for the comments.

Here are the key points that you may want to focus on.

1) ColdFusion is MACROMEDIA's server side programming language. Macromedia is the only group that actually updates the code. Because of this, It advances at a less faster curve than PHP.

2) Running coldfusion requires a hefty server. ColfDusion actually piggybacks itself on JSP. Because your are technically running 2 server-side languages, (ColdFusion talking to JSP, JSP executing commands) it not only creates server bog downs, but can actually increase troubleshooting for any specific error.

3) Implementation cost. ColdFusion MX (the only readily available veriosn of CF) costs a little over 1G. PHP is free.

4) More apps for PHP by far. You never know when you will want to add functionality to a website.

5) PHP is faster. Each re-release of the PHP engine generally improves execution spped exponentially.

6) Only Macromedia supports ColdFusion, and then only partially. Custom scripts are generally excluded. With PHP, you have a world of developers to ask, and documentation that would fill the pentagon to go with them.

7) Implementation - we all know that with Linux, installing software can be treacherous. I once worked with a Cobalt Raq550 and had to call up ColdFusion support to see if it would be possible to put coldFusion on the server. They said it should be ready to go out of the box. Upon more research, I found 2 people that had been able to do it, only after changing out 5 or so linux modules.

Let the customer know that, yes, ColdFusion can do all the things that PHP can do, with the exception of sub queries. However, if they want to spend the cash on an overpowered server, waste time getting it implemented, and only have support coming from one main area that ColdFusion just might be the package for him.

However, if the customer is looking for a server-side script that is designed with each release to be faster on ANY machine, with a development base of world wide programmers, and more applications than I can dream to count that can be installed at the blink of an eye, well, they just may want to think twice.