Posted on February 17th, 2010Ten years ago, hosting a dynamic web site was hard. There was a lot of planning that went into it, and the software that was used at the time was far from being the best tools for the job. Even for a veteran web master. This was around the time that PHP was just being created, and Ruby was a niche language that had no rails to go with it. Your options were either to use Perl or C++ and create a CGI gateway. Now things are a lot different. With the advent of programming languages and frameworks that were built with the web in mind, you are able to create a large and fully dynamic site quicker than ever. Besides the abundance of programming languages that are built for the web, there are also a large amount of premium and open sourced software solutions that will help you create a fully functional web site very easily.
The first thing that we should look at, is the programming languages that are used to power the Internet these days. Not counting huge sites such as Amazon and Google, we have four main technologies that are used to create web sites. They are PHP, ASP.net, Django, and Ruby on Rails. You will see some Java based web sites as well but that is not common. Perl used to be the king of all the languages when developing a dynamic web site but in recent years, it has really been pushed to the background. They still have a niche but it is not used in newer sites as much as the others. If you are the creator of the web site, then you know what technology you used to create the site and what host will fulfill that purpose. If you had someone else create the site, then you must be sure that the host you pick fits the requirements that you need. If you pick a host that doesn’t meet the criteria, then that can lead to a lot of wasted time and money.
There are certain software packages that people who host their own site expect to see. For example, if you are hosting your web site on a Linux based system, then you expect a CPanel layout to control the server. Also, you expect that CPanel layout to have software such as WordPress and Drupal, ready to be installed at a moments notice. This makes it easier to get a dynamic web site running, especially if you are new to the web and owning your own web site. You also want to make sure that your web host has the most updated software for these packages. You do not want to run into a security hole as soon as you install something.
Making sure your web host has not only the right language for your needs but also the right software packages, is very important. Without the features that you need, your experience can be an undesirable one. The web host should be a partner in your endeavors. They should want to accommodate you in all of your needs and if they can not, find someone who can.