These tools work great on medium-to-large projects, and while they might be overkill for some smaller ones, they're not too unwieldy for my purposes.

HTML::Template in perl, Velocity in Java - Both VERY simple template systems. You can't make it do really "intense" things w/o a lot of work. You can't lazily create crap as easily w/ other template systems. Learning curve is very low.

CGI::Application in perl, Struts in Java - A lot of people know them. I prefer struts for data abstraction from the actual web application, but that's a preference that coding standards can get the rest of the way.

Class::DBI in perl, Hibernate in Java - There are very simple patterns that we tend to screw up, and add a small % of code to our apps. In the case of database stuff, you first have to deal w/ connections failing, preparing statements, putting all of your sql in a central place, relating them back to objects/blessed refs if you are using OOP. It's a lot of stuff to do. w/ class::dbi and hibernate, i can specify how something maps to something else in a more centralized way and not writing much DB code. DBI is a grand thing, but it's time we got past using it for complex apps, just like you would use CGI.pm to create a cgi.

Off topic, but do you have any thoughts on why Java is such an attractive choice for open source projects given that
1) Java itself is not open source and
2) you can get more done with less lines of code in Perl (or Python or Ruby) (similar sentiments echoed here).

First off, you definitely need an Apache running mod_perl on a Linux box.

Why? Why not *BSD? Why not fastcgi or just vanilla CGI (the OP did say "not so large websites")?

"What framework do you feel content about not so large websites? What is your toolset?"

He asked what you feel content about and what *your* toolset was. I replied with *my* preferences. If you prefer different options, post them. This isn't a competition. :\

Besides, what I posted works well with large and small applications and provides room for growth.

Personally, I use CGI, Template, and DBI. They're simple enough to put together on your own, and I've never found a reason to use anything else other than those three base modules for the basic farmework of a web application. I have previously looked at Class::DBI but wasn't floored by what it could do; but since it seems to have a very widespread audience of users that praise it, I may have to take another look.

I didn't like some of the design decisions made by Class::DBI so I wrote my own alternative that I (predictibly) like a lot better: Rose::DB::Object. If you weren't enamored with Class::DBI, you might want to check it out.

CGI::Prototype - hmmm, should you have declared your interest in that module, like financial commentators do for investment articles ?
That said I've built a simple 'system monitor' style app in just a few hours with it - just for my own education, not yet ready to write an app for a client in it yet. But it was fun!

...it is better to be approximately right than precisely wrong. - Warren Buffet

I usually use DBI and DBI::Pg, but lately I'm thinking about moving out of this whole SQL business, take a look at cpan::DBM::Deep