---
title: Site development overview
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

Kentico provides two basic development models. You can choose the approach that best suits your needs:

| Portal engine  | Recommended for most developers. Does not require programming and using Visual Studio. You can build websites using page templates and web parts in a browser-based user interface.<br>To learn the basics of the portal engine, see [Creating pages using the portal engine](https://docs.kentico.com/k8tutorial/creating-pages-using-the-portal-engine.md), then [Walkthrough - Creating a new site using the Portal engine](https://docs.kentico.com/k8tutorial/walkthrough-creating-a-new-site-using-the-portal-engine.md)                                                                                       |
| -------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ASPX templates | Can be chosen by ASP.NET developers who prefer to create websites using standard ASP.NET architecture and standard development tools, such as Visual Studio. You need to be familiar with ASP.NET development and have at least basic programming knowledge of C# or VB.NET.<br>To learn the basics of ASPX template development, see [Creating pages using ASPX templates](https://docs.kentico.com/k8tutorial/creating-pages-using-aspx-templates.md), then [Walkthrough - Creating a new site using ASPX templates](https://docs.kentico.com/k8tutorial/walkthrough-creating-a-new-site-using-aspx-templates.md). |

Both approaches are fully supported and provide the same level of flexibility and extensibility. We recommend using the portal engine, but if you are an advanced .NET developer or wish to integrate existing functionality built on standard ASP.NET architecture, you may want to use ASPX templates.

> **Info:** It is also possible to create websites or specific pages using the [Model-View-Controller](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/developing-websites/developing-sites-using-the-mvc-framework.md) architectural pattern (based on the ASP.NET MVC framework), but this is beyond the scope of this basic tutorial.

If you're not sure which development model is best for you, see [Choosing the right development model](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/developing-websites/choosing-the-right-development-model.md).