Rather than the usual language selection (e.g English, Spanish, French) we are talking here about scripting language. When you are looking at creating a new website, selecting your scripting language before you start is one of the most important things to consider.

Some of the factors that can sway your thoughts one way or another are :
1. Ok, you get a web design company to do the website build.
2. Which programming languages you yourself are familiar with.
3. Past experience of web design builds.
4. Repository of code that will assist you in speeding up the completion of the build.
5. You are using an out of the box package that is written in a specific language.
6. Cost of hosting.

1. If you have decided that a professional company are going to do the website design for you, it does negate the concern over which language to choose. However, don’t forget that if you do not know how to program in the language they choose you will be beholden to them forever more for website updates.

2. If you have spent some time programming in a particular scripting language, it is reasonable to assume this is the language you will choose. If you only know html you may want to look into php or asp to increase your knowledge, abilities and possibilities.

3. Perhaps you have built websites before, this will sway you decision quite strongly as your familiarity with the language will not only open up a lot more control over the running of the program but also minimize the time required for bug fixing.

4. Having a repository of code is a great way to decrease the amount of time required to complete a new web design project. If you have multiple programmers working on a project, keeping a repository is important to avoid duplicating work and increasing work load.

5. If you have chosen an “out of the box” package, like for instance the Magento oscommerce package. This is written in PHP so therefore your scripting language is chosen for you.

6. The cost of hosting is as a general rule more expensive for ASP and MSSQL hosting account than it is for PHP hosting accounts with MySQL, if cost is important this could affect your decision.

Don’t forget to always consider future updates, even if you get a custom built CMS (content management system) as your website grows you will more than likely need this CMS to be reconfigured.