No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

IIS PHP Windows vs Magic xpa Application Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IIS PHP Windows
Ranking in Application Server
9th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.0
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Magic xpa Application Platform
Ranking in Application Server
11th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Application Infrastructure (14th), Mobile Development Platforms (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Application Server category, the mindshare of IIS PHP Windows is 0.7%. The mindshare of Magic xpa Application Platform is 2.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Server Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IIS PHP Windows0.7%
Magic xpa Application Platform2.7%
Other96.6%
Application Server
 

Featured Reviews

Gaurav-Bansal - PeerSpot reviewer
Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Hosting client blogs has become straightforward but resource usage still needs improvement
IIS PHP Windows has positively impacted my organization by helping to deploy customer websites that have very small budgets, allowing the organization to assist those clients, which builds trust with them. It enables the organization to help them run their small websites, and while some clients had bigger projects, they also wanted their small websites to run, such as a personal blog. Client satisfaction was high because a Windows server can be monitored, and the customer's websites could remain up and running all the time. If something happens and the application crashes, we could simply grab the logs from the event viewer to check memory limits and investigate what is happening. Additionally, the client could perform some of the management using the GUI management interface in IIS.
Mylsamy T. - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Associate - IT at Himalaya Wellness Company
Enables us to develop more than 90 applications in-house, which are used across our organization
It's a bit difficult to work with purely web-based applications to get the data and display it. There have been a few times when the connection was disconnected between the server and your browser. The connectivity on browser-built applications needs to be improved. The mobile application development could be easier. They could include different external applications, like finger sensors. I'm not sure whether it's in version 3.8 or not.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"In my experience, the best features IIS PHP Windows offers include allowing us to host the PHP application with better performance compared to XAMPP, which we were previously using because XAMPP was giving slow performance."
"If you want to host your PHP or Laravel-based application in Windows, you can definitely use this extension, and using this extension you can host your PHP or Laravel application in IIS and it will have super speed."
"IIS PHP Windows has positively impacted my organization by helping to deploy customer websites that have very small budgets, allowing the organization to assist those clients, which builds trust with them."
"IIS PHP Windows impacts my organization positively because my applications perform very well here when compared with XAMPP."
"The solution makes the managing and adapting of the software very easy."
"Typically an experienced Magic developer can do the work of two to three experienced C#/.NET developers."
"In spite of the solution's high cost, we see a very large return on our investment."
"I think this is a good tool for making some nice applications independent of the operating system, database, and environment."
"The speed of development is the quickest for any tool on the market."
"Magic’s unique approach to development ensures that the programmer stays focused on the objective of the program (i.e. display all customers in California), instead of the repetitive tasks that surround it (i.e. connect to database, open customers table, create the query to retrieve records within the specified criteria, fetch the result of the query, connect it to a data grid, etc.)."
"The best feature of Magic is the development time. The time it takes to develop something is incredibly fast if you compare Magic with, for example, Java."
"Typically an experienced Magic developer can do the work of two to three experienced C#/.NET developers. Customers are amazed at how quickly most new features can be added and bug fixes implemented. I have worked for four employers - including myself - using Magic, and in most instances, bug fixes are addressed and deployed in under six hours."
 

Cons

"I chose a rating of seven out of ten because IIS PHP Windows is good for small enterprises with manageable aspects, but it has very high resource usage and requires a Windows server license, contributing to the overall cost."
"There is room for improvement in Magic's marketing and licensing. I would like to see more integration of web functionality."
"In the next version of the Magic xpa Application Platform, I want tables or small programs where I can directly add expressions. I can do it on SQL, but it would make life much easier if that specification were added to the platform."
"They want to be one toolbox for everything, but primarily, we are using xpa to develop desktop applications, and in that area they're lacking functionalities, flexibility, and modern stuff."
"The Android environment is missing a number of functions for file/folder manipulation, sending receiving text messages (SMS) and the menuing options are limited. For now, it is left to the developer to write his/her own Java functions to include in the APK."
"It is missing basic charting tools for bar/pie/series charts. It is left to the developer to acquire and deploy charting tools or the customer to purchase a third-party reporting tool to produce charts."
"The user interface could be improved to be more friendly for developers."
"The configuration of the xpa RIA mobile environment is complex and a discouragement to new developers. Also, Magic's documentation can be less than complete at times which leads to frustration for new developers. (I encourage new Magic developers to join the Magic Users Group)."
"Throughout my career, I've encountered difficulties when integrating new technologies with Magic xpa Application Platform. In particular, when attempting to incorporate features from other development languages into earlier versions of the solution called uniPaaS. I struggled to integrate .NET components due to the limited options available. This made the process more challenging and complicated. I find it challenging to create a more user-friendly experience for users who may be comparing the system to other systems they have used outside or within the company on different platforms."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Magic is not the cheapest IDE out there. If you are considering Magic xpa, you should do a cost-benefit analysis to feel comfortable with your decision. The Magic sales staff is very helpful in providing pricing."
"My clients have to purchase additional licenses in order to use what I built. It's not a fair approach."
"The licensing cost varies because nowadays Magic has tailor-made offerings for clients. I think the solution is worth the money."
"The licensing is too costly."
"The main problem with the Magic xpa Application Platform is pricing. You have to pay a lot of money for development, and you also have to pay a lot for the deployments and runtime, while in most competitors, you have to pay a lot for one of the two and not both."
"The cost for developers is high because you have to pay for licenses as well as runtime."
"It's not cheap. The licenses are not cheap. Not at all. They cost much money. There are other tools with free licenses but Magic asks for a lot of money."
"There are different licenses, we have the application and the online application. There are two different licenses for two different program sites for the Magic xpa Application Platform."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Server solutions are best for your needs.
909,153 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
47%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Construction Company
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise1
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IIS PHP Windows?
IIS PHP Windows can be improved regarding its higher resource usage. Unlike a Linux web server that is very lightweight, the resource usage is higher on Windows. I chose a rating of seven out of te...
What is your primary use case for IIS PHP Windows?
My main use case for IIS PHP Windows is to deploy it for WordPress websites and Laravel custom applications so they can run on IIS using the PHP provider and PHP version. I used IIS PHP Windows for...
What advice do you have for others considering IIS PHP Windows?
Regarding IIS PHP Windows' security, I think its governance and security are solid as long as you configure Windows Active Directory correctly and all Windows authentication so that no other users ...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

No data available
uniPaaS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
ADD, Cape plc, Adecco, Kuno Kinzoku Industry Co., GE Capital, Dove Tree, CBS Outdoor, Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center, Allstate Life Insurance Company, Titan Software Systems
Find out what your peers are saying about IIS PHP Windows vs. Magic xpa Application Platform and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,153 professionals have used our research since 2012.