ColdFusion Server 5

Advise; Experience; General Comments required

[fashezee]

I'm starting to receive contracts for web sites that require dynamic content. I'm not too well versed in any programming language, but I have taken courses on COLDFUSION and find that it very, very simple to understand and implemement. My partners and I are interested in purchasing COLDFUSION 5 SERVER, the only thing is the price tag of 2000$ (USD mind you) that comes with it.

This is where you, avid webmaster world member come into the picture. Before spending that kind of money, I would like to know any experiences out there of developers or users who used Coldfusion. Is it worth it? What are the problems encountered? Anything else you think I should know before spending the cash, don't hesitate to let me know.

[littleman]

CF does seem very easy to use, but I am not a big fan. It is slow, and expensive. You may want to look at php [php.net].

[yoda]

I wouldn't go as far as to say that it's slow but yes not as fast as php. This is especially true with version 5 since they added user defined functions that execute way faster then custom tags. On the other hand, I personally find that development time is shorter with ColdFusion. Database integration is extremly simple, but that added layer makes everything slower for example.

I basically look at it this way:

when development time is more important, i'd go with coldfusion, but if execution time is your motto then i'd go with asp or php. For the price tag, i'd say that if you can gain a few days of work just because of faster development time on projects, what's that worth to you?

yoda