This could easily turn into a this-vs-that war, so I'll answer just briefly.
1. Why is PHP/ASP hosting cheaper?
I would imagine that both are easier to deploy than Java, because there is one less piece of software. For ASP, you install IIS, and you're done. For PHP, make the module part of Apache, and again you're done. For Java, you need a separate server (e.g.
Tomcat) in addition to Apache. (For many users, Apache in front of the
servlet container wouldn't be necessary, but that's how most hosting comopanies operate.)
2. Does PHP have any distinct advantages over Java? Some pretty big corps have using PHP such as facebook.com and digg.com
And vice-versa. I bet that most sites that do serious backend processing have components written in other languages behind the PHP frontend.
3. Does anyone know of any cheap Java/JSF hosting?
The
ServletsFaq contains a list of Java hosting companies.
[ June 20, 2007: Message edited by: Ulf Dittmer ]