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Microsoft .NET Framework vs Zend PHP Engine comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

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

Microsoft .NET Framework
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Zend PHP Engine
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Microsoft .NET Framework is 5.8%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zend PHP Engine is 1.5%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Infrastructure Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft .NET Framework5.8%
Zend PHP Engine1.5%
Other92.7%
Application Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

David Shlingbaum - PeerSpot reviewer
Old version maintains functionality but lacks current cloud support
Since the version I'm using is many years old, they have been continuously improving. They are always adding features to the language and framework, but I cannot comment from a very old version on what needs to be improved as I'm not completely up to date. There is a challenge and complexity in supporting a very old version of a product that is no longer supported. It's still possible with Microsoft .NET Framework, which isn't the case with many other products. That's a positive aspect. It has limitations when trying to develop new things with Microsoft .NET Framework. But whatever works, continues to work. It always needs improvement, but again, it does not improve when discussing an old version of Microsoft .NET Framework. I think they're always improving, but it's a never-ending process.
SatyendraGupta - PeerSpot reviewer
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.…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"A great solution for creating program solutions in a framework for Microsoft Windows quickly and easily."
"Microsoft .NET Framework’s most valuable features are web application development, RESTful services development, security, performance, and less memory footprint."
"The addition of generics to handle common functionality across types, and the more recent upgrade of the dataset to the Entity Framework, has cut development time drastically, while increasing quality and confidence between builds."
"If we take low code, no code platform such as RPA platforms, you might end up writing 100 lines of code and you might do it in a single line of code using. NET."
"As we are a software company, we find that accessing resources using this technology is easier compared to the others."
"The solution is not limited in storage, is customizable and simple to use."
"The solution is easy to use if the user is a developer or some technical person."
"In my opinion, the best thing about Microsoft .NET is the fully featured framework. It provides most of the things which a normal developer requires of any application out of the box."
"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."
"This solution is really easy for me to use."
"​Zend Engine is the core of PHP. It makes PHP fast, efficient, and basically, the language of choice for web applications."
"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."
"Faster web app implementation, when PHP dev is required by customers."
"We have not encountered issues with scalability as long as we effectively use caching to optimize performance of our web applications as well as a proper use of database connectivity."
"The Zend Framework provides an easy, open source way to produce coding based on the needs of our customers.​"
"The solution's initial setup process is easy."
 

Cons

"The solution needs to update its security periodically because there are many security concerns."
"Improvements are needed in .NET development, particularly in a backend scenario."
"The initial setup is complex."
"The cloud features must be improved."
"Better integration with other tools to make the operation faster would be an improvement."
".NET Is still heavy or dependant on other Microsoft libraries and frameworks."
"The learning curve could be improved."
"They do provide the .NET library, however, for me, the most important capability we want to investigate in the future is the integration with Copilot. This would help speed up the development of the code and also the testing and documentation of the requirement."
"The solution can be quicker."
"Zend PHP Engine needs to improve the loading time of its libraries and make it faster."
"Integrating AI tools would make PHP more competitive, as other tools already have AI features."
"A general scripting language should be further developed and should be embedded into it."
"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.​​"
"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."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In the interim, there's no need to purchase videos for viewing. Microsoft has made significant moves in the .NET space, starting with their response in Visual Studio Code and now providing Visual Studio entirely for free. This is a notable shift from the past when we used to pay substantial amounts for technical subscriptions. Previously, a group of ten developers could cost several thousand dollars annually for licensing. However, the current trend is to offer these tools for free to maintain their dominance in the developer market. The market dynamics have changed, and now developers can freely download Visual Studio, making it a preferred choice over other paid options."
"It's an expensive solution"
"Microsoft .NET Framework is free of cost."
"The product is not expensive."
"There is a Community Edition that can be used free of charge, but the licensing cost for the Enterprise version is quite high."
"For the moment I can only give the product a rating of five out of ten since only some of the customers will be satisfied, those that have the financial resources for hosting a platform on Windows Server."
"The Microsoft .NET Framework is free of charge, without licensing cost."
"If you want to develop an enterprise-level application, you have to purchase the enterprise-level development license."
"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."
"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."
"The solution is open source and you just pay for the server cost."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
14%
Real Estate/Law Firm
12%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise22
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft .NET Framework?
Microsoft .NET Framework continually innovates, particularly in Visual Studio, which focuses on improving languages, debugging, and .NET functionality.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft .NET Framework?
I don't know about pricing. I'm paying for Visual Studio, even though I'm not using the new version yet. Prices can always be better, but I think for the environment provided, the prices are accept...
What needs improvement with Microsoft .NET Framework?
Since the version I'm using is many years old, they have been continuously improving. They are always adding features to the language and framework, but I cannot comment from a very old version on ...
What do you like most about Zend PHP Engine?
The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature.
What needs improvement with Zend PHP Engine?
Integrating AI tools would make PHP more competitive, as other tools already have AI features.
 

Also Known As

MS .NET Framework
PHP Engine
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Curtin University, Rockwell Automation, Aruba Networks, Insurity Inc., City of Barcelona, Pennsylvania DCNR, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, A1 Telekom Austria AG, Eastman Chemical Company
Cisco
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft .NET Framework vs. Zend PHP Engine and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,370 professionals have used our research since 2012.