As you know, the simplest way of creating a website is to develop static pages with a .html or .htm extension. A big problem with such pages however is that it takes a lot of effort to update them, i.e. you have to update them manually in order to add more data, delete previous data and supplement existing data. Furthermore, your site visitors will not be able to interact with such static pages which leads to a bad user experience. The best way to avoid these scenarios is to used a server-side scripting language such as ColdFusion, ASP, JSP, PHP etc.

ColdFusion is the oldest scripting language which made its way into the realm of scripting languages back in 1996 when it was launched by the Allaire company. Today however, the ownership rights of ColdFusion belong to Adobe who has acquired it from its parent company. Like many other scripting languages, ColdFusion makes the use of tags in order to communicate with a database residing on your hosting server. For this reason, inclusion of at least one database in its hosting plan is a pre-requisite for a web hosting company in order to be able to offer one or more scripting languages such as ColdFusion.

Coldfusion web hosting is generally offered by companies on the Windows platform, although an increasing number of providers also offer this feature on Linux, Solaris etc. One of biggest advantages of ColdFusion is that it does not require the client's computer to have one or more applets (small programs) installed on it. This can be a great sigh of relief to a webmaster like you, since it takes the worry out of your mind that your visitors need to have Java applets (a requirement for JSP) installed on their computers in order to view the content properly. This means that the scripts written with ColdFusion are browser-independent and so pages with a .cfm extension can be viewed on any browser with no compatibility issues.

Furthermore, adding ColdFusion support to your pages does not require you to remove the HTML from them, since ColdFusion can integrate seamlessly into your existing pages. All you need to do is to add the required CFML tags and change the page extension from .html to .cfm. Incorporating ColdFusion can add a great deal of interactivity to your site, since your visitors can interact with your pages which in turn interact with the database to present the information tailored to the needs of the visitors. An example can be customers looking for the best pizza deals in town or the cheapest baby clothing within a specific location etc.

Another big advantage of ColdFusion is that it is much simpler to use than other scripting languages, yet is powerful enough to develop the most demanding dynamic business applications. You don't need to be an expert in ColdFusion in order to use it effectively and harness it power, in fact you can learn it along the way. One downside however is that it's a bit expensive compared with ASP or PHP. However, given the powerful scripting commands it offers coupled with its simplicity of use, an extra buck may prove to be the best investment you can ever make for your website.