There are two basic types of web pages: static pages and dynamic pages. Static pages usually have content that is always the same. Dynamic pages are created based upon stored values on a web server. For, example a search engine would use a database to create dynamic pages of search output when you submit a query to it's web server. In the web development world, there are tools for creating visual content and tools for programming the dynamic content of web pages. Tools for creating web page visual elements include HTML and Javascript. Tools for creating dynamic content include C# .NET, Java, Visual Basic .NET, PHP, Perl, Active Server Page (ASP) and Java Server Page (JSP). Basically, if you use HTML and Javascript to create your website, you would have a static site because fo the limits of these technologies.

There are three basic languages types used in e-Commerce software development: those that are compiled, those that remain as scripts inside a web page and those that remain as scripts outside a web page. Java, C# and Visual Basic are compiled languages. ASP and JSP are scripting languages that remain inside a web page. PHP and Perl are scripting languages that remain outside a web page. It is usually harder to reuse software code and debug software that uses scripting languages. As a result, these types of systems can be more expensive to maintain. They tend to be a good solution for smaller websites, but a maintenance headache for large systems.

Java made a big splash in the late 1990's. It quickly became the premier language for Internet development for a number of reasons. For one thing, it hade a rich class hierarchy that lent itself to Internet development. Second, it solved some of the biggest problems facing web development like creating programs that leaked memory over time. Third, it could be programmed for multiple operating systems like Unix and Windows. Now, however, the .NET languages have emerged as the premier development environment for the Internet. C# and Visual Basic offer a better development environment for web page development than Java. .NET is a mixed-language environment. You can have a web site with some C# and some Visual Basic. Also, .NET offers the same type of language environment that Java offered. .NET, however, is a Windows only environment, unlike Java.

.NET software development for internet commerce has raised the productivity bar for all web programmers. C# and Visual Basic are programming solutions from Microsoft Corporation. These solutions are currently the fastest integrated development environments (IDEs) available for internet e-Commerce applications. Independent studies have verified this conclusion. Most corporations are concerned right now with the total cost of ownership (TCO) of software applications. .NET is the answer to the total cost of ownership equation. .NET provides the biggest return on a corporation's IT investment at this time. A few years ago, R.E. Coker made the change from Java servlet development for web applications to .NET development using C# and ASP.NET. Java was the best web development environment a few years ago, but now .NET has taken the lead.