FrontPage was initially created by Cambridge, Massachusetts company Vermeer Technologies, Incorporated,[2] evidence of which can be easily spotted in file names and directories prefixed _vti_ in web sites created using FrontPage.

Vermeer was acquired by Microsoft in January 1996 specifically so that Microsoft could add FrontPage to its product line-up,[3] allowing them to gain an advantage in the browser wars, as FrontPage was designed to create web pages for their own browser, Internet Explorer.

Both sets of extensions needed to be installed on the target web server for its content and publishing features to work.

However, with FrontPage 2003, Microsoft began moving away from proprietary Server Extensions to standard protocols like FTP and WebDAV for remote web publishing and authoring.

A version for the classic Mac OS was released in 1998; however, it had fewer features than the Windows product and Microsoft has never updated it.

Most .NET Microsoft products obsoleted this in favor of WebDAV, but Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 still publishes ClickOnce applications to websites with FrontPage Server Extensions.