Are there any alternatives to PHP?

Question

Summary: Are they any similarly open-ended web frameworks aside from ASP.NET and Coldfusion? Will I be able to find them on a budget web-host?

Yes, this title sounds ridiculous! I know there are other web frameworks out there, but PHP seems very open-ended when it comes to how one can go about about making a web application. I've played around with Rails, and though it's fantastic at what it does, I don't particularly like the direction its "rails" go. I simply don't enjoy it. I'm making a personal site, and I want to have fun!

Are there any other similarly open-ended fraemworks? I realize that ASP.NET can be that way with web forms, and Coldfusion could fit the bill, too. I'm not interested in either of those. I don't like Coldfusion, and I want a framework that I can realistically run on my Linux box.

I suppose I've been spoiled with C#/Ruby/Python/ECMAScript. I want a terse, fun, high-level, functional language; I don't want PHP! Yes, PHP is high level, and yes, it now has functional components, but it's not in the same league as a language like Javascript or Ruby.

Am I making any sense...? Does anyone else want this sort of framework?

Answer 1

Clojure is a fun lang to code in. Check out web frameworks written in Clojure. Compojure, Webjure are a few names I can think of.

Answer 2

I would consider Django. Having done a lot of work in both Rails and Django, I prefer the direction Django takes over that of Rails.

If you want to do things in a different style, take a look at Turbogears or Pylons.

Also, cheap decent hosting is available too: Web Faction support most of the nice frameworks and langagues