Web Development is a broad term for the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). This can include web design, web content development, client-side/server-side scripting, web server and network security configuration, and e-commerce development. Web development can range from developing the simplest static single page of plain text to the most complex web-based internet applications, electronic businesses, or social network services.

For larger organizations and businesses, web development teams can consist of hundreds of people (web developers). Web development may be a collaborative effort between departments rather than the domain of a designated department.

Smaller Web site development companies are now able to make web design accessible to both smaller companies and individuals further fueling the growth of the web development industry. As far as web development tools and platforms are concerned, there are many systems available to the public free of charge to aid in development. A popular example is the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack, which is usually distributed free of charge. This fact alone has manifested into many people around the globe setting up new Web sites daily and thus contributing to increase in web development popularity.

Web Development can be split into many areas and a typical and basic web development hierarchy might consist of:

Client Side Coding

1. Ajax Asynchronous JavaScript provides new methods of using JavaScript, and other languages to improve the user experience.

2. JavaScript

3. HTML5 and CSS3 Latest HTML proposed standard combined with the latest proposed standard for CSS natively supports much of the client-side functionality provided by other frameworks such as Flash and Silverlight

Server Side Coding

1. ASP (Microsoft proprietary)
2. PHP (open source)
3. Websphere (IBM proprietary)
4. .NET (Microsoft proprietary)

Database Technology

1. Apache Derby
2. DB2 (IBM proprietary)
3. Microsoft SQL Server
4. MySQL
5. Oracle
6. PostgreSQL
7. SQLite
8. Sybase

It is still important to remember that web development is generally split up into client side coding covering aspects such as the layout and design, then server side coding, which covers the website's functionality and back end systems.

Web development takes into account many security considerations, such as data entry error checking through forms, filtering output, and encryption. Malicious practices such as SQL injection can be executed by users with ill intent yet with only primitive knowledge of web development as a whole. Not only this, but scripts can be exploited to grant unauthorized access to malicious users trying to collect information such as email addresses, passwords and protected content like credit card numbers.

Because new security holes are found in web applications even after testing and launch, security patch updates are frequent for widely used applications. It is often the job of web developers to keep applications up to date as security patches are released and new security concerns are discovered.