Web Application strategy plan. Best Technology To Choose

[thomas.edison]

Hello,
I know this kind of questions sound silly most of the times, but still I need to ask it. I am planning to get a web application done, for my business usage; it should be able to handle a huge DB scenario ( think of retailers DB ), support Mobile access as well.

I asked different developers, some advises PHP+MySQL+Apache are the best and cheaper to implement , Others insisted that ASP.net+Oracle/MSSQLserver is a must for the complexity of requirements and the scale.

I am lost between the two parties, without enough technical background to take the decision, which apparently would cost money and time.
As a 3rd party reviewer and professional web developers; please advice me.

[chrishea]

Facebook and other large applications are built with PHP and MySQL so they can handle large scale apps. Also cheaper, probably simpler and lets you run under Linux (or Windows if you really want to).

I haven't had too much experience with Microsoft setups, so I can't really comment, but LAMP setups are simple and scalable.

Mobile access AFAIK depends more on front-end interactive elements (javascript), rather than the back-end stuff. So things like jQuery for mobile: http://jquerymobile.com/

[thomas.edison]

Dears, Thanks a lot for your responses. So it looks like both ways can go on, clearly it depends on the developer knowledge.
I understand that people here would be in favor of PHP as this is a PHP forum. I am also in favor of it, as it is cheaper choice for me. Just wanted to be sure.