Zend Studio is the only Integrated Development Environment (IDE) available for professional developers that encompasses all the development components necessary for the full PHP application lifecycle. Through a comprehensive set of editing, debugging, analysis, optimization and database tools, Zend Studio speeds development cycles and simplifies complex projects.

With Dreamweaver, web developers go from start to finish, creating and maintaining basic websites to advanced applications that support best practices and the latest technologies.

There are big differences between the two.

Dreamweaver = WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get-an HTML editor.
Zend Studio = IDE: Integrated Development Environment.

Dreamweaver is an HTML editor designed to allow you to drag and drop HTML elements to create a LOOK that you like.
Zend Studio is a full development environment for writting code. It can debug, analyze and run code.
Zend Studio is built for coding. Dreamveaver is built just for making a webpage.

Use both, but use Zend Studio for your advanced PHP coding.

Dreamweaver has no real time syntax error reporting, no debugging, while Zend has a great Php debugger.
Dreamweaver is recommanded for begginers and also for developers who create webpages in HTML mixed with PHP code, but for advanced PHP applications, web programmers would use Zend.There is also a way to use both, by programming, debugging and optimising the PHP code in Zend, and creating the visual LOOK (HTML code) in Dreamweaver.

Our vote:

Zend Studio = Robust PHP IDE
Target Market = PHP Programmers & Developers
(for mission critical PHP projects, there is no doubt about it)

Dreamweaver = Strongest in the WYSIWYG/ Swiss Army of an IDE (php, .net, coldfusion, etc.)
Target Market = Web Designers & Developers
(for your average website client and tweaking opensource projects)

written by Alex R.