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In the early days of the internet, a website was nothing more exciting than a collection of documents made publicly available in the www folder of a connected file system. Over time, with the development of server-side scripting languages like ASP, SSI, and PHP, these documents took on dynamic properties and eventually web applications were born. Most websites today — even simple blogs and single page sites — aren’t really document collections any more, they are database-backed web applications written in fully-featured programming languages like PHP 5, Ruby on Rails, and Perl.

Web applications vs. Web sites

The line between a “web application” and a website is not a clear-cut one at all. Some web applications present themselves to the user as if they are “apps,” in the sense that they have obviously dynamic functionality to them. Other web applications are used to mange the content and display of a site, which — to the user — seem completely static.

Building even the simplest website today requires an understanding of web applications. You don’t have to know how to build applications to set up a website, but it helps to have a sense of what types of applications underlie even the most basic types of sites.

Free and easy installation

Many of the most popular web applications are Free and Open Source, and many others have free-ware versions with premium add-on features. Because so many of these are available at no cost, many web hosting providers offer simple One Click Installation of these apps from the hosting control panel.

Easy installation is usually provided by a third party install-wizard like Fantastico, Softaculous or Simple Scripts.

Remember to check the Requirements

Every web application has certain technical requirements that must be met by the server that you plan to run it on. These are usually software dependencies (other programs or languages that must be installed), rather than hardware requirements.

If these minimum requirements are not met, the application will either not run at all, or (worse) will appear to run fine but will exhibit weird behavior that will eventually compromise your site.

If you click on any of the application names below, you will find a detailed description of the application along with notes about server requirements. Take these requirements into consideration when you are comparing web hosting features and deciding which web hosting company to use.

Be especially mindful of version numbers. Often web applications will need a particular version (or higher) of some language, library, or tool.

Popular web applications

CMS — Content Management Systems

Content Management Systems store content in a database, provide an admin interface for easily adding and editing content, and display content to website visitors using some kind of template or theming system. Many CMS applications are extensible through the use of plugins, allowing them to manage any type of content — blog posts, pages, events, products, videos, and any thing else you can think of.

Almost all the web applications on this page could be classified in some way as Content Management Systems.However, this category refers only to those CMSes that provide general Content Management functionality, or which cross a number of different categories.

Blogs

A blog is a website that displays pieces of dated content, usually in reverse chronological order. Blogs can be used for personal journals, company news, organizational announcements, and any other type of site where you need to update the content with timely information on a regular basis.

Most blogs also provide the ability to create timeless (not date specific) content, like About pages.

WordPress — WordPress is the most popular blogging software platform, and can be used as a full-featured Content Management System (CMS).
BlogEngine.NET
FlatPress
b2evolution
dasBlog

Also see the CMS section, above.