Everything I run at the moment is based on PHP. What advantages, if any, does Cold Fusion have over PHP? What could I do with Cold Fusion that I can't achieve with PHP. Thanks.
If you already know PHP, you should probably stay with it. Coldfusion is good if you don't know how to program and want a low learning curve.
Interesting post and all are correct to a degree. I am a certified cold fusion developer and I am also very proficient in PHP. I must say both are very fun and I only use either depending on the client. I've come to realise you can do pretty much everything in PHP in ColdFusion and vice/versa. Most of the talk now is just about price. If you're developing for a corporate client, you might want to go ColdFusion - however if budget is an issue PHP is cool. Don't get me wrong. PHP Rocks! So does ColdFusion. PHP does the swf files as well and also the PDFs. I'm not sure how PHP is (yet) on WebServices but most of what you will hear about them is probably (operative word being probably -I'm not starting a fight here lol) just bias or lack of equivalent and appropriate experience. When I started out in PHP, I thought it rather hard but once I started practicing and forcing myself to develop in it, I realised that it was really a charm. The two are great - right now, it's a matter of choice. In my opinion.
Coldfusion has a application server that can allow you to do some cool stuff. I'd say Coldfusion is more like php's Zend server than it is like normal php.
Advantages of Cold fusion Over PHP, have a look at this article. http://www.elixant.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1535. It describe all the points nicely. Good luck
Most of that is nonsense, and probably because of when it was written; "Sep 23 2004" Even then most of the "advantages" listed are entirely possible in PHP.
I would say that if your coding a lot, php can be a lot easier because cfc have a lot of tags. But they changed the language syntax in cf9.