Website development is the stepping stone of an online journey. So, whatever resources you use to build your website affects the functionality, structure, features, etc. of your website and impacts your online journey on the long run. This is why it is crucial to choose the right platform for building your website that best meet your needs and expectations.

Basically, a website development platform is the base and refers to the supporting framework, application server, database, and the programming languages on which your website is based.

As a developer, there are a few major points that need to be kept in mind before selecting the platform for your website.

1. Serving your clients

Understanding the needs of your clients   
This is one of the initial factors to consider when choosing the website development platform by considering languages to choose.

While most of the popular programming languages, as such PHP, are open-sourced and do not cost you much money, some of the powerful languages are available only commercially through licensed authority. The upside of using those languages are that they provide cost-justified easy set-up, saving you time and effort, mainly suitable for enterprise level website building.

However, for the personal or small business websites, ASP.Net and PHP are better options, as besides being open source, they are server-side scripting language, with a well-established, huge community of users.  

The other areas that requires economic resources are mainly, the server and the respective server application software that you choose. Thus, before you choose the website development platform, you should assess your client’s economic resources properly.

Take, for instance, Contentder, a budget friendly, website development platform, especially for the small businesses and startups.

2. Your prior exposure to programming

If you are just a novice programmer or a beginner who has no exposure to programming whatsoever, then building website with complex languages which requires long syntaxes, is tedious. It is simply for this reason that few languages have grown popular today, for instance, PHP, JSP, and ASP.

Check out 5 Tips on how to kick start your programming career if you want to get a few ideas.

Let’s give a brief introduction to each of them:

ASP.Net

Previously licensed under Microsoft, this is yet another open source, server-side web development model which was developed in order to enable the creation of enterprise-level, dynamic website with minimal amount of code possible.
Developed with CLR, it allows you the use of the languages: C#, VB.Net, and visual C++ too, thus letting you add a wide variety of flavors.

As it is a static language, it has a strict set of script rules. So, as opposed to the dynamic languages, detecting errors on the code becomes much faster and easier due to the compiling process that the script has to go through.

It also sets a single-approach rule to code in contrary to the multiple approach rules set by dynamic languages. Besides, due to the new server-side .Net controls, the need for lengthy codes has been minimized to a large extent.
With ASP.Net, you may find two frameworks to work with: web forms and ASP.Net MVC. Out of these, the latter one has been found to be much appreciated by the users.

PHP

As you might have already known, PHP is an open source, server-side scripting language that is mainly used for quick development of a fully functional, dynamic website. Because that it is open source, website development through this language involves minimal cost. It has a community of large number of PHP developers, implying that it is easy for you to get a help through the large number of forums and online resources available.

Moreover, PHP has the versatility of being implemented either as a module or a CGI. And, it is compatible with all the operating system and almost all type of servers.

Besides, it provides you the benefit to choose whether you would want to use it via procedural programming or object-oriented programming. This is the best programming language to work with if you want to be fully creative as PHP does not have a  fixed set of rules when it comes to solving a problem. Meanwhile, it is also the right choice for you if you want to build a website without having to deal with the heavy line of codes.

JSP

Similar to ASP and PHP, this language is another server-side programming technology that helps to create dynamic websites regardless of the platform used. The only difference is that Java is the programming language used here. In addition, various other specified programming languages can also be used with JSP.

Unlike ASP, where languages like visual basic is used, JSP uses Java, a more powerful and easy language to use. Besides, it is also portable to other Microsoft servers and operating systems.

As you can embed the dynamic elements directly into the HTML pages, instead of making a separate CGI files, the performance of the website is significantly bettered.

Being built on the Java Servlet API, it gives you access to the Java APIs, as such JDBC, EJB, and the like.
   

3. The Operating System

Your choice of website development platform and the operating system you choose are interdependent. Therefore, the operating system you choose should best cater to your needs.

When it comes to choosing the right operating system for your website development, you should consider its flexibility aspect.

The most popular operating systems amongst the website developers are Linux, Windows and OS X.    

4. Your Server Software

Again, the server software you choose depends upon your budget. It depends on whether you want to use the proprietary software from the vendors, such as Sun Microsystem or Microsoft. Or you want to use software from the open source as Linux. Because when you choose to use the open source software, your client should be able to hire staffs with technical expertise.

While choosing the right server software, you should consider security features, interoperability with varying hardware, maintenance tools, and data management capabilities.

5. Your server-side database choice

Lastly, another important factor that you need to consider is if you need non-relational database or not because market mostly offers the relational database. Besides, you should also look for other aspects, such as security features, the level of customizability you need and the corresponding overall cost.   

So, now do you have an abstract idea of the things you need to know before selecting the perfect website development platform?

Learn more about Contentder, an all-in solution for website development built on top of ASP.net platform for better and secure results.

We hope that this article was helpful enough for you. For more articles like this, keep following us over Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.