i would guess coldfusion is less supported and less documented so i wouldn't instantly and easily believe it will cut down your development time...

it might come pre-isntalled with some nifty frameworks but codeigniter and cakephp are available for php -not to mention great sites like here and php.net.

i would think carefully about it before making any big decisions.

i bet you can find more freelance php developers quicker than coldfusion.

I stared out using ASP in the 1990s and then migrated to PHP. I also investigated Cold Fusion and JSP.

Here are my observations about Cold Fusion:

1.You can only run it on a Cold Fusion server. If you want to set up your own server, there are licensing costs.

2. The support is much weaker than with most web languages.

3. There are very few Cold Fusion web sites out there.

I know people who work with Cold Fusion and it has a core following who like it, but IMHO it is almost dead as a web development platform.

Like Kevin said, you won't find many Cold Fusion developers.

PHP developers are practically a dime a dozen and there is more support for it than any other web development language. Once you build a library of modules that do the things that you want, the development time is cut dramatically.

Quick development time is not always the best solution. There is good, fast and cheap. Pick any two.

I do both, and can tell you first hand that the tiny amount of time you save in development is going to be a very small drop in the bucket compared to the overhead costs of licensing and setting up a cf supported server. Yes, cf has many built in functions but like said before, most php developers build libraries to take care of what they need and don't add the bs they don't want (unlike cf where everything is there, bogging down the server, regardless of whether you actually need it).

Apache's server is the most popular server in the world. Not because it is free. It's because it works and has almost no downtime. It's also designed with PHP in mind.

Also like previously mentioned, it's very tough to find cf support. Go look in the cf forum. The most previous post was made two days ago. The one before that was over a week ago. Now compare that to the PHP forum.

It's not true that ColdFusion will cut down your development time. If you need faster development time, you should try Frameworks such as CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Symphony. You will know the speed of your development. Not only speed but also reusability and easier maintenance.