We are startup in web application domain. We currently have two applications built for two different industry. Both of them were developed from scratch in yii, a PHP framework.
We are now planning on selling it as a product and will even think about hosting it as a SAAS later.
So we are thinking of moving the applications to either Java or .NET. But are stuck at which to choose. So instead of comparing them, i will list down our requirements.
- RAD Development
- Would prefer MVC ( Since we already have experience with Yii)
- Good web controls ( Better if there is easy integration from the framework itself with Dojo/EXTJS/ Other JS library.
- Component driven development ( Eg. We should be able to plug our “HR Module” to both our app easily)
- Ability to make a component-like library in that technology, so tomorrow if we have to develop another such web-app for another industry, we should be able to do it FAST!!
What we have considered so far:
- .NET MVC 3.0 ( can we use webform controls with MVC? )
- Grails
- Play!
Our final aim is to build expertise in any one of the technology, so we would be able to roll out applications/features faster. Any help will be highly appreciated. Thanks!
Note:
- .NET licensing is not an issue.
- PHP is not an option because of lack of skilled PHP developers where we operate.
I’d recommend ASP.NET, but that’s my area of expertise, so I’m going to be pretty biased…
As far as your MVC3 question – yes, you can mix and match MVC with traditional asp.net web forms. You can create .aspx pages do all the web forms stuff even though you’re in a MVC project. MVC also has top-notch integration with the jQuery javascript library, even with documentation, so you get code-completion when writing jQuery in Visual Studio, which is pretty handy if you’re going to be doing a lot of javascript development.