Linux Web Hosting Versus Windows Web Hosting, Which Is Better For You?

If you are new to web hosting industry, it can be quite a feat to choose the best solution for you need. There are many aspects you may totally unfamiliar with. For instance, there are different operating platforms, Linux web hosting and Windows web hosting for you to choose. Even though both of them have the similar function which will allows you to put your website online easily, there are also some fundamental differences between them. Thus, before you go on to search for the best web hosting service you could get, you need to know the advantages and disadvantages of each one. Besides, there are completely different requirements between a small blog website and a big enterprise website. Thus, when purchasing for web hosting, you should assess your priorities and needs.

Advantages of Linux Hosting Compared with Windows Hosting

Linux web hosting is much affordable. As we all known that Linux is open source and generally free whereas Windows operating system is developed and owned by Microsoft. This means that you can set up a Linux server totally free while quite expensive to set up and run a Windows server. As the web hosting companies need to pay more to set up a Windows server, they will convert the money to customers. Therefore, if you are short of money and do not have any special requirements for Windows-based programming languages and applications you can easily find a quite affordable and reliable Linux web hosting package.

Advantages of Windows Hosting Compared with Linux Hosting

As mentioned above, if you intend to create your web site with Windows applications, such as ASP, FrontPage, the .NET environment, Windows Streaming Media, Access, MSSQL, or any of the other Microsoft proprietary technologies then a Windows web hosting plan would be absolutely essential since there are very limited support for these technologies in Linux hosting solution. However, before you start making your website with these languages, it is probably worth your considering the fact that if you use these server specific technologies and then changing a web host will be much harder than you use technologies that can be run on any other system.

Which One is Best Fit You

After you have a clear idea about the advantages of each, you should be able to make a wise decision. If you are still feel puzzle about which one is right for you, then I suggest you to go for Linux server. Many newbie webmaster find Linux servers to be the "simpler" operating system and they are more reliable, affordable. Of course, talking with your potential hosting companies about your website requirements will help you solve the problem to some extent.

Conclusion

The differences between the operating systems are much less than you might think. From my point of view, the most noticeable difference between the two for the average consumer is price. If you could buy a service or product at a much inexpensive price, why do you pay for higher price? Unless you are specifically using features that are unique to Windows server, it will be much better to go with a good quality Linux web host.