IIS vs Zend PHP Engine comparison

Microsoft and Zend are both solutions in the Application Infrastructure category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.5, while Zend is ranked #15 with an average rating of 7.5. Microsoft holds a 10.2% mindshare in AIS, compared to Zend’s 1.7% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zend users who would recommend it.

IIS

Read 61 IIS reviews

3,165 Views
2,121 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Zend PHP Engine

Read 11 Zend PHP Engine reviews

496 Views
496 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IIS

Zend PHP Engine

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

Zend PHP Engine and IIS are competing in the web server technology category. Zend PHP Engine has the upper hand in offering flexibility and developer-centric features, while IIS may be superior for businesses reliant on Microsoft technologies.

Features: Zend PHP Engine provides compatibility and performance enhancements in PHP development, seamless PHP execution, and an extensive library of extensions. IIS stands out with strong integration within Windows Server, native support for multiple languages, and exceptional management capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Zend PHP Engine could refine its centralized support options and improve documentation. IIS could enhance flexibility beyond Windows environments and streamline the complexity in non-Windows server integration. Both technologies could advance user interfaces for better user experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IIS benefits from streamlined deployment within the Windows ecosystem, supported by extensive documentation. Zend PHP Engine offers straightforward deployment processes and ample community resources but lacks the centralized support infrastructure provided by Microsoft.

Pricing and ROI: Zend PHP Engine's open-source model results in lower setup costs, promoting a favorable ROI for PHP-focused companies. IIS, while potentially having higher initial costs, offers significant ROI for organizations deeply invested in Windows technologies due to cohesive integration and robust support.

To learn more, read our detailed IIS vs. Zend PHP Engine Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IIS vs. Zend PHP Engine

December 2025

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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

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Server (4th)

Zend PHP Engine

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

15th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of IIS is 10.2%, down from 12.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zend PHP Engine is 1.7%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Infrastructure Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IIS	10.2%
Zend PHP Engine	1.7%
Other	88.1%

Application Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

Krishnakumar Natarajan

Systems Engineer at Atos

Designs and manages multiple websites while ensuring data backup and disaster recovery

I have experience with AWS, and I am most familiar with the server environment, as we just use the server environment and then use Microsoft products on an AWS environment. I have experience with Windows Server IIS, which I ran on my own on-premise data center. The website was developed and then hosted, and through IIS, we managed the servers. The manageability within the IIS environment is not very difficult. For server management, you need to ensure data backup, data restore, and you have a DR configured to keep the database intact. It was done on-premises, so I had no problem doing that. If you have to go to the cloud, then you should have the storage connected to the IIS server and also have a DR set up for that. I didn't use Microsoft Azure tools, but since it is a Microsoft product, Azure has all the portability, so you don't have to worry about compatibility on the cloud. On a scale of 1-10, I would rate this solution a 10.

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SatyendraGupta

External Consultant (Digital Tool Developer and Intervention Specialist) at IQVIA

The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature

The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature. A general scripting language should be further developed and should be embedded into it. I have been Zend PHP Engine for nine years. Multiple people are using the solution. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The best features of IIS are that you can design your own website and manage it yourself, creating as many websites as you want."

"IIS's most valuable feature is user-friendliness."

"The most valuable feature of IIS is that it's free, and it works."

"The graphical user interface makes it easy for users to configure the sites."

"IIS fits properly for my business needs, with a lot of possibilities to upgrade the out-of-the-box functionalities, so it is really great."

"IIS is scalable."

"It has an intuitive user interface and provides a lot of options for building reports."

"It helps scan and mitigates our vulnerabilities using the best protocols to secure our environment."

More IIS pros

"The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature."

"It offers good support for various types of classes, along with many open source libraries that we can readily utilize in our application development process. This gives us a lot of options when it comes to custom development solutions, without having to worry about licensing or other programming-related issues."

"The cache modules that Zend provides have been able to optimize and accelerate the loading of the pages when there was exponential growth in data volume and quantity of requests. At the same time, the monitoring console allowed us to have a real-time understanding of the resources and to make decisions when they were at the limit."

"The Zend Framework provides an easy, open source way to produce coding based on the needs of our customers."

"Offers a complete environment to develop PHP applications. It is valuable because it allows you to have a complete stack (PHP, MySQL, Zend Server) enabling the building of a development environment, and to deploy to the production system."

"Scaling up is an important factor for large projects, and with PHP 7 and its performance improvements, this becomes even easier."

"This solution is really easy for me to use."

"Zend PHP Engine is more secure than any other framework, and I usually prefer Zend PHP Engine for big applications."

More Zend PHP Engine pros

Cons

"Sometimes, we encounter difficult issues, and getting support from Microsoft to resolve those issues is not easy."

"The platform's stability could be better."

"The customer service and support team can be improved."

"The only issue I've encountered is with certificates not working fine sometimes. It's influenced by the server's service performance."

"In the next release, the tool should be more easily integrated and configured with other provisions. The pricing should also be made cheaper since it's very expensive now."

"The only disadvantage I see is that the documentation is a bit difficult to find."

"It should be more user-friendly because unless you know how IIS works as a Microsoft product, a system admin cannot just manage it."

"If Microsoft IIS could work well with AppOptics or things like PHP, Python, and other custom languages that run on the webserver, it would be ideal. I think there are cases where people need to use Apache instead of IIS when IIS doesn't work well with other web languages."

More IIS cons

"Integrating AI tools would make PHP more competitive, as other tools already have AI features."

"The main area that Zend needs to improve is to support asynchronous programming tasks, which is facilitated in PHP 7, but not at the same degree as HHVM."

"Its object oriented programming language needs improvement."

"The process of installing and configuring the product is a bit complex and could be improved."

"Integration of MVC with ORM tools for PHP is okay, but lacking a short list of decent ORM tools for PHP to choose from; there is ample room for improvement in both areas."

"The biggest problem with PHP is you have to write lot of conditions or have to use a framework."

"A general scripting language should be further developed and should be embedded into it."

"Although it offers a complete environment to develop and deploy PHP applications, it has some limitations. For example, when the volume of data increased exponentially, I had problems scaling the system."

More Zend PHP Engine cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Windows Server IIS is expensive. They have a large user base, and they charge a little bit too much."

"The licensing cost is dependent on the usage."

"The solution’s pricing is yearly. The pricing is affordable and not high."

"IIS is expensive."

"There is no license needed to use the solution."

"IIS's pricing is reasonable."

"There is an annual license to use this solution and the price could be better."

"I give the price of the solution a five out of ten."

More IIS pricing and cost advice

"Its pricing depends on the number of users."

"The Zend PHP engine is open source technology, so there's no need for us to worry about licensing or other costs."

"The solution is open source and you just pay for the server cost."

"No problem with pricing and licensing, as tools are open source. You have to consider training cost, mindset setup cost, as part of the TCO."

"Zend PHP Engine is not an expensive solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Comms Service Provider

Government

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	29
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	22

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

Which is better - IIS or NGINX Plus?

IIS is a flexible, secure, and manageable web server to host anything on the web. IIS’s scalable and open architecture can handle the most demanding tasks. From media streaming to web applications,...

See all answers

What do you like most about IIS?

The product is flexible.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IIS?

For the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for IIS, as a Microsoft product, I didn't think much about separately purchasing an IIS product as it is part of Microsoft Windows. We bought a developmen...

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What do you like most about Zend PHP Engine?

The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zend PHP Engine?

PHP is an open-source solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zend PHP Engine?

Integrating AI tools would make PHP more competitive, as other tools already have AI features.

See all answers

Comparisons

Apache Web Server vs IIS

Compared 23% of the time

NGINX Plus vs IIS

Compared 22% of the time

Tomcat vs IIS

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle WebLogic Server vs IIS

Compared 6% of the time

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) vs IIS

Compared 6% of the time

More IIS Competitors

NGINX Plus vs Zend PHP Engine

Compared 58% of the time

Apache Web Server vs Zend PHP Engine

Compared 42% of the time

More Zend PHP Engine Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IIS

January 2026

Download IIS product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

January 2026

Download Zend PHP Engine product report

Also Known As

Windows Server IIS

PHP Engine

Overview

Internet Information Services (IIS) provides a secure, easy-to-manage, modular and extensible platform for reliably hosting websites, services and applications. With IIS, you get choice and control without giving up reliability or security.

Microsoft

The Zend PHP Engine is designed to optimize PHP code and improve performance, making it a popular choice for web developers. It is easy to use, stable, does not require a lot of code, is open source, and only requires payment for server costs. The initial setup is straightforward, and there is no real need to set up the solution because it's built into the deployment.

Zend

Sample Customers

Erste Bank Group, NJVC, Samsung Electronics, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Tata Steel Europe, Urban Software Institute

Cisco

Buyer's Guide

IIS vs. Zend PHP Engine

December 2025

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