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 8.6, while Zend is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.0. Microsoft holds a 10.5% mindshare in AIS, compared to Zend’s 1.4% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zend users who would recommend it.

IIS

Read 59 IIS reviews

2,965 Views
1,927 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Zend PHP Engine

Read 11 Zend PHP Engine reviews

440 Views
440 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: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IIS vs. Zend PHP Engine

September 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

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

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 October 2025, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of IIS is 10.5%, down from 12.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zend PHP Engine is 1.4%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Infrastructure Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IIS	10.5%
Zend PHP Engine	1.4%
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

"It is a lightweight web host that is easy to configure for simple webpages."

"The tool shows us the operating systems where our servers and applications are running."

"It's very easy to publish."

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

"Windows Server IIS is stable."

"IIS has a very simple and user-friendly interface, which helps a lot in effective and efficient management."

"It's good and offers good usability."

"The product's initial setup phase is straightforward."

More IIS pros

"The solution's initial setup process is easy."

"Zend Engine is the core of PHP. It makes PHP fast, efficient, and basically, the language of choice for web applications."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the speed at which it compiles and sends the dynamic cache."

"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."

"Zend PHP Engine is a good tool for developing and collecting data, offering strong performance."

"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."

"Zend Engine gives the flexibility to use external modules to easily expand the functionalities you need for your web project."

"Faster web app implementation, when PHP dev is required by customers."

More Zend PHP Engine pros

Cons

"The solution's scalability needs improvement."

"The scalability depends on how you have set it up. If you're running IIS on a single server, it might not be as capable as if you are on many in a cluster or with load balancing and so on."

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

"IIS needs to improve its security. Its support needs to be faster and clear. The tool's licensing could be cheaper as well."

"Presently, some developers do not have technical knowledge of managing IIS, so that needs to be improved in the next release."

"Scalability issues and security concerns need attention from Microsoft."

"IIS could improve by Microsoft Windows improving the update services. We would like to be able to update all systems that are connected. The WSA service has to be in good order to accomplish this."

"IIS could improve the error logging. There are times we are not able to see the errors. More details would be helpful. Additionally, the configuring of the IIS should be allowed through coding instead of the classic view."

More IIS cons

"SQL queries have always been an issue with PHP, especially if you use large tables, which require caution from the side of the developer."

"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."

"Zend PHP Engine needs to improve the loading time of its libraries and make it faster."

"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."

"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."

"In terms of improvement, it doesn't support concurrent processing. When we want to process anything on a concurrent basis, we have to divide it into a number of things, like a queue, or we have to run it using Cron jobs. We would like to have the capability to run any thread or process in parallel."

"Its object oriented programming language needs improvement."

More Zend PHP Engine cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"IIS comes along with an OS license from Microsoft. Others can opt for a perpetual-based licensing model to be able to use the system."

"The tool is included with Windows."

"The price of the cloud system is a bit high."

"I didn't need to get an additional license for the solution since it was included in my server."

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

"The licensing cost is dependent on the usage."

"IIS is expensive."

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."

"Zend PHP Engine is not an expensive solution."

"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."

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

Comms Service Provider

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	28
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	21

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 30% of the time

NGINX Plus vs IIS

Compared 27% of the time

Tomcat vs IIS

Compared 10% of the time

Oracle WebLogic Server vs IIS

Compared 8% of the time

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) vs IIS

Compared 6% of the time

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Apache Web Server vs Zend PHP Engine

Compared 100% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IIS

September 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

September 2025

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

September 2025

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