Need a better platform. Switching platforms (asp.net to php)?

[NLR]

Not having the knowledge can be very frustating! I need to improve the conversion rate (among things) of my company's e-commerce site. After months of discussions, our webmarketing company admitted that; they specialise in webmarketing and most of the changes we want is functional. It will be better to move from our basic e-commerce platform to an advance platform, but it will be best to stay with asp.net or we will lose all our PR if we switch to php etc etc and they are the only people who can work on our site!
Now it seems to me that we are forced to stick with them and it feels/seems that we will spend more money for a better asp.net platform but then we will be stuck under their control for ever(pay,pay & Pay)! I have a good developer in mind but the problem is that he only use php!

I need to get my ducks in a row real fast to brief my MD on a way forward! It seems to me that php will be best because one can easily change between developers and it is cheaper then asp.net?! Should we change or not? Also, what platform do we use? Mybe BigCommerce?

 

[AntonRSA]

You won't lose any PR if you use proper 301 redirects (http://www.squidoo.com/301) to the new pages. PHP is definitely cheaper than ASP.net and there's really quite a few platforms that you can use even free ones -search for oscommerce.

 

[luckybird]

Hi, we been dealing with ASP.Net since version 1, It really depends on what you want to do. You don't have to stick to one firm sure they may create a few files that cant easily be opened but generally most developers don't. Your site at this time represents a significant investment (Time, Money, PR) Although its true that you can migrate and there is a possibility of not losing PR we have had a number of sites move from position 1 to lower down the rankings for a few weeks due to these moves. even when applying the corrective measures.

PHP is no doubt cheaper, its cheaper to develop its cheaper to host. ASP.net has several advantages that really rely on your budgets and your objectives really. Almost all of our sites except blogs we use ASP.net (the open source .net apps are too bloated frankly) My advice is Should you really wish to start again then do so using PHP (many Open source commerce apps out there that can be modified a bit) if you dont want to loose time or take risks get someone else in the ASP.Net programming world to take a look at your site they will tell you if you can migrate and use new service providers.

Cheers

 

[<?php?>]

Yes!, you should change to PHP now!

It has been proven many times over that LAMP will save you money arround every turn.

http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2010/02/15-open-source-ecommerce-platforms.html

http://blog.webdistortion.com/2008/05/03/9-kick-ass-open-source-e-commerce-platforms-reviewed/

 

[guest2013-1]

Wow, loads of bull**** answers here...

First off, if you had proper url-rewriting done, you don't have to worry about which tech you're running in the background to serve up the pages, just make sure the new site is rewritten the same way as the old one. No 301's and if the design and SEO features of the page stays exactly the same, you shouldn't see any decline in rankings (one post wonders... probably xrumer bots if you ask me)

Anyway. Just because you want to move away from a company trying to force you into using their services for development based on what they already did for you in ASP.NET doesn't necessarily mean you have to switch your entire ****ing platform. Including servers, database backend, migrating users, order and product data etc.

Like it's been mentioned. You already significantly invested into your website. Kalahari.net is ASP.NET. It's going to be stupid for you to change this because some **** company wants to force you essentially. Remember, you as a company own the source code, so you're more than welcome to take that business elsewhere.

Your web marketing company also admitted to specializing in web marketing and not programming. So why the **** would they claim to be the only ones capable of working on your site? Get your head out of your ass and start looking for programming companies who can add the functionality you require without re-inventing the wheel. It took months of discussion to come to the conclusion to just delete everything and start from scratch? and now you're wondering how that would impact your ranking? Well, your web marketing company won't be able to do their job anymore since they're not able to make (simple) changes to the source of your site anymore either (something I suspect they're doing manually)...

But you know what, people like you (and your boss most probably) will do whatever you guys want at the end of the day and ignore any sound advice anyway. So go ahead and change to php. I just hope paying the web marketing company/development of your current site was worth it up to now.

 

[House]

Wow, loads of bull**** answers here...

First off, if you had proper url-rewriting done, you don't have to worry about which tech you're running in the background to serve up the pages, just make sure the new site is rewritten the same way as the old one. No 301's and if the design and SEO features of the page stays exactly the same, you shouldn't see any decline in rankings (one post wonders... probably xrumer bots if you ask me)

Anyway. Just because you want to move away from a company trying to force you into using their services for development based on what they already did for you in ASP.NET doesn't necessarily mean you have to switch your entire ****ing platform. Including servers, database backend, migrating users, order and product data etc.

Like it's been mentioned. You already significantly invested into your website. Kalahari.net is ASP.NET. It's going to be stupid for you to change this because some **** company wants to force you essentially. Remember, you as a company own the source code, so you're more than welcome to take that business elsewhere.

Your web marketing company also admitted to specializing in web marketing and not programming. So why the **** would they claim to be the only ones capable of working on your site? Get your head out of your ass and start looking for programming companies who can add the functionality you require without re-inventing the wheel. It took months of discussion to come to the conclusion to just delete everything and start from scratch? and now you're wondering how that would impact your ranking? Well, your web marketing company won't be able to do their job anymore since they're not able to make (simple) changes to the source of your site anymore either (something I suspect they're doing manually)...

But you know what, people like you (and your boss most probably) will do whatever you guys want at the end of the day and ignore any sound advice anyway. So go ahead and change to php. I just hope paying the web marketing company/development of your current site was worth it up to now.

+1 - Totally agreed!

 

[luckybird]

Wow, loads of bull**** answers here...

First off, if you had proper url-rewriting done, you don't have to worry about which tech you're running in the background to serve up the pages, just make sure the new site is rewritten the same way as the old one. No 301's and if the design and SEO features of the page stays exactly the same, you shouldn't see any decline in rankings (one post wonders... probably xrumer bots if you ask me)

Anyway. Just because you want to move away from a company trying to force you into using their services for development based on what they already did for you in ASP.NET doesn't necessarily mean you have to switch your entire ****ing platform. Including servers, database backend, migrating users, order and product data etc.

Like it's been mentioned. You already significantly invested into your website. Kalahari.net is ASP.NET. It's going to be stupid for you to change this because some **** company wants to force you essentially. Remember, you as a company own the source code, so you're more than welcome to take that business elsewhere.

Your web marketing company also admitted to specializing in web marketing and not programming. So why the **** would they claim to be the only ones capable of working on your site? Get your head out of your ass and start looking for programming companies who can add the functionality you require without re-inventing the wheel. It took months of discussion to come to the conclusion to just delete everything and start from scratch? and now you're wondering how that would impact your ranking? Well, your web marketing company won't be able to do their job anymore since they're not able to make (simple) changes to the source of your site anymore either (something I suspect they're doing manually)...

But you know what, people like you (and your boss most probably) will do whatever you guys want at the end of the day and ignore any sound advice anyway. So go ahead and change to php. I just hope paying the web marketing company/development of your current site was worth it up to now.

Lol AcidRaZor, Hope you not including me in the list of Bull**** answers here I'm pretty much saying the same thing as you, Don't move unless you absolutely have to. I don't do PHP so wont be advocating its use unless you being cheap ass. Or you need some rapid development off the work of others.

Anyway Goodluck

 

[NLR]

Better Platform - Php or asp.net?

Thank you to all for the answers. Please note that I'm not a IT specialist (yet), but oversee these functions in my company and I'm getting my hands dirty here in order to know enough to make the right decisions.
Spending hours in research it’s clear that there is a "war" between php & asp.net followers. I'm not into that and believe that both are great, but depending on what you want to achieve, one will serve you better then the other (hope I'm correct).
As an outsider reading all the reviews and talking to people that will have no benefit in being biased, it seems to me that money plays a predominant role here..?! It’s almost as if asp.net is great for developers to be able to charge more money for services and php being better for the owner of the website paying less to get the job done (as I said, it seems like it).

Anyway... 1. Finding another developer with asp.net is difficult because I don’t know him and would not know the pro from the con. The developer I know well already (doing work for Top Billing etc) uses php. 2. If php is cheaper and takes less time (meaning less hours @ the same Rand value) when changes needs to be implemented, then php gets my attention (obviously saving the budget). 3. If it’s possible to save PR when moving to php through 301's then it minimizes the risk. 4. Currently we have Dynamic URL's and I want Static URL's (if I have it the right way around because I want to build keywords into our URL's), so the URL's are going to change anyway (not certain of the options around that..!

There are just so many things that plays a role here that I'm not certain where to start..

Oh and please everybody, don't be so harsh on me for I'm still learning and it could be a long way till I'm near your level..!

 

[Raithlin]

Dude, listen to AcidRaZor. He knows what he's on about. I agree with him totally, BTW - you can change the entire back-end technology/framework/whatever and still end up with the same URLs and content if it's done right.

 

[guest2013-1]

Dude, listen to AcidRaZor. He knows what he's on about. I agree with him totally, BTW - you can change the entire back-end technology/framework/whatever and still end up with the same URLs and content if it's done right.

You can even cheat and map Apache to handle .ASPX extentions to PHP. No one would know the difference

 

[guest2013-1]

If php is cheaper and takes less time (meaning less hours @ the same Rand value) when changes needs to be implemented, then php gets my attention (obviously saving the budget). 3. If it’s possible to save PR when moving to php through 301's then it minimizes the risk. 4. Currently we have Dynamic URL's and I want Static URL's (if I have it the right way around because I want to build keywords into our URL's), so the URL's are going to change anyway (not certain of the options around that..!

I'm not being harsh. Just direct without candy-coated bull****. I don't sweet-coat my ****. I know it stinks. So why try?

With regard to your comments... you'll learn the ropes quite quickly.

Just keep in mind that whichever platform you go with, the cost associated with development time will be significantly dependent on the skill of your programmer and not the platform. If the guy is any good then additions/updates won't cost you much since development time would be minimized. You can also leverage off the strength of Apache's URL rewriting to get your dynamic URL's to static ones. Unfortunately that will impact your PR a bit but not much since Google is usually quick on the uptake. With a crap programmer you'll most probably spend more money than you need to.

I would put my stamp of approval on such a move just to get away from the marketing company AND save on cost in future. But you have to consider the money already invested in your site and what the marketing company does for you so you can get the programmer to perhaps write a CMS capable of changing the things they usually change for you on the site in terms of web marketing etc. Unfortunately this might be a huge learning curve for you, and I hope you have sound-solid-trusted advice out there since I've met a couple of programmers who would bull**** you just to get money.

 

[w1z4rd]

We completely dropped all ASP dev to move to PHP. Its made a difference in reliability and stability.

 

[guest2013-1]

Its made a difference in reliability and stability.

NB, this is most probably due to one fact alone: Programmer changed as well.

If it's neither reliable nor stable, your programmer sucked. If he didn't really suck, it was most probably faulty hardware. But on the list of stuff to blame, I usually blame the server DEAD last since I know WTF I'm doing

 

[<?php?>]

AcidRaZor, highlighted some valuable points there, however,

I would calculate the TCO over, say 60 months, consider MS licensing fees / upgrades (if you own the servers), future development costs, maybe you'll appoint an in house developer and need Visual Studio, and things like that and I can confidently state that you will pay and pay and pay, by going the ASP.NET, No... lets get it out there, Microsoft route!

Anyway, I wouldn't take advise from script-kiddies a.k.a "dudes"...

 

[w1z4rd]

NB, this is most probably due to one fact alone: Programmer changed as well.

If it's neither reliable nor stable, your programmer sucked. If he didn't really suck, it was most probably faulty hardware. But on the list of stuff to blame, I usually blame the server DEAD last since I know WTF I'm doing

From our own experience, having updates break working .net applications was really frustrating, also porting between systems became a nightmare. Yup, we dont have ASP devs here anymore, and apparently all the ones in the past sucked because we have never had a stable experience from windows. The worst is when there is power interruption and you have to wait for several hours for a chkdsk to complete! Then omg, the amount of propriety bs you need to pay for... it was just a headache.

We run nothing mission critical on Windows anymore. We learnt our lesson the hard way. Now our main back end system is on Linux and its more stable. We have many suppliers with many API`s, and everything is php friendly (Im sure its ASP friendly as well).

So from our perspective our systems respond faster, have less timeouts, more uptime and is cheaper since dropping windows and asp. I suppose theres a reason why almost all the worlds big systems are run on linux. I also suppose that there are many people who will find .net and windows more useful than linux. In our case, php and linux was the better way to go.

 

[Sonic2k]

w1z4rd.. on one of your sites you use some form of software I like... it manages one of your blogs. Would you please help me with that? I am asking nicely here...

 

[NLR]

Php or asp.net - Thanks!

AcidRazor, you do make sense and what you told me brings the stress down..thanks! It is pretty much what I've suspected the case to be. Both asp.net and php is good, but the person doing the work (utilizing the tools) makes the difference (in most cases). In many cases I do understand that the one platform will result in higher charges as the next, depending on what needs to be done. Am I getting this right ..??!

Also, we want to keep the web marketing company, but let them do web web marketing, SEO etc only. Having a dedicated developer to handle all our changes to functionally as we want to apply new strategies and doing this move to a more advanced e-commerce platform will best suit us.

Changing the back-end and keeping the URL's...not suffer too much at PR and wanting Static URL's (where I can build in keywords etc)...doing this right! The doing "it the right way" part, is unclear. When we need to employ a developer, how do I know that knows how to "do it the right " way??

I guess a few of you are laughing your &^%$# off for these questions..