Difference between JSP and ASP

When developing dynamic and interactive web applications, developers often rely on server-side technologies. Two such technologies are JSP (JavaServer Pages) and ASP (Active Server Pages). Both allow embedding code into HTML pages, but they differ in platform, language and ecosystem.

JSP (JavaServer Pages)

JSP is a server-side technology developed by Sun Microsystems (now Oracle). It allows developers to write dynamic web pages by embedding Java code within HTML. JSP is part of the Java EE (Jakarta EE) platform and is widely used for enterprise-grade applications.

Key Features of JSP

• Java-based: Leverages the power of Java, making it robust and secure.
• Platform Independent: Runs on any OS that supports the JVM.
• Integration: Works seamlessly with Java technologies like JDBC, Servlets and EJB.
• Reusable Components: Supports tag libraries (JSTL) and custom tags.
• Scalability: Suitable for large-scale enterprise applications.
• Precompiled Servlets: JSP pages are compiled into servlets, improving performance.

ASP (Active Server Pages)

ASP is a server-side scripting technology developed by Microsoft. It enables developers to create dynamic web pages using scripting languages such as VBScript or JavaScript. ASP runs mainly on Microsoft’s IIS (Internet Information Services) server.

Key Features of ASP

• Microsoft Integration: Works seamlessly with Windows-based servers, SQL Server and other Microsoft tools.
• Scripting Language Support: Supports VBScript and JScript (JavaScript).
• Easy to Learn: Simpler for beginners, especially those familiar with Microsoft technologies.
• Rapid Development: Good for small to medium-sized projects with faster development cycles.
• Event-Driven Programming: Allows embedding scripts to handle events within HTML pages.
• Tightly Coupled with IIS: Optimized for Windows environments.

JSP vs ASP