Where LAMP is and there are no licensing fees, the Microsoft Web development tools do have licensing fees, although the IIS and .NET technologies are routinely bundled with Microsoft Server and Windows Professional operating systems.

Installation of either ASP.NET or LAMP is fairly routine, with some expectation of the usual tweaks to enable the development tools to operate at optimal efficiency. Microsoft uses standard wizards, where LAMP uses a series of dialogs for installation at both the server and client sides, assuming the client is a coder or programmer.

There is little or no client-side software that is not routinely in place for standard users as the major browsers are capable of interpreting and displaying the Web content.

One significant advantage that Apache/MySQL/PHP (AMP) has is that it can be implemented on virtually any host, regardless of hardware or operating system. PHP hosting can run under Windows (WAMP), Linux/Unix (LAMP), Mac (MAMP), Sun/Solaris (SAMP) and others. ASP.NET is run under Windows, or in some cases, can run under a virtual machine or framework in some other operating systems.