Static web sites based on HTML files are analogous to printed literature. Although they may include animations and even Java scripts running in the browser,  information contained within them is inherently static. On the other hand, server side scripting allows the web site to formulate HTML pages dynamically, filling them with the specific information a user has requested, or up-to-the-minute data that is drawn from an online database.

Database integration becomes far more powerful when using ASP. Not only can scripts pull out records from a database, but they can process the information too. It is possible to run multiple queries and have several record sets opened from one ASP page. ASP enables us to get much closer to the customer's idea of how their site should work and add a host of extra features too. Server-side 'includes' provide an efficient way to distribute changes to navigation bars instantly across large sites. Even tasks such as sending mail through a form can become far more flexible using ASP.