Tutorials > General Webhosting Info > Must I use a Linux or Windows Web hosting
Must I use a Linux or Windows Web hostingMost simple HTML based websites only require a basic Linux Hosting. It costs less, due to no licensing costs and is generally very stable. All you need is a good hosting provider like RSAWeb.
As soon as you decide you would like more complicated features like dynamic pages and databases used to drive ecommerce, products, applications and more advanced functions you will require a hosting with more features. These are available on both windows and linux(unix) platforms but do utilize different development technologies.
The most common options are:
- PHP with a MySQL database for use on Linux
- ASP with a MSSQL or access database for use with Microsoft Windows
Your computer runs Windows, does this mean you must host on Windows?
Just because your desktop computer runs Microsoft Windows doesn’t mean you require a Windows Web Hosting. Whatever operating system you run on your desktop is independent of the type of hosting service you have. As long as you have development software and a FTP program you can edit and update your website.
Website Objectives
What is important however is you know what you want your site to do, what you want to offer on your web site. This is what will ultimately lead you to the type of hosting. As mentioned before, interactive sites usually rely on ASP or PHP type languages. Each programming language has it’s own strengths and weaknesses and sometimes one can give you something the other can’t although not very often. PHP is Linux based and ASP Windows.
If you opt to use ASP to power your web site, then you’ll want to go with Windows hosting. You might be told that ASP is available on Linux hosting packages and that is true. But bear in mind it might not work as well on Linux as they would on Windows. This is also true the other way around. While you can have PHP on a Windows web host, they weren’t developed for Windows and might not work as well. RSAWeb suggests clients utilize the language that was designed for the operating system.
Some hosts have successfully implemented these programming languages for the different platforms. Be very clear in this case about the scripts you want to use because server configurations for Windows can be vastly different from Linux. This might cause the script to fail or not function at it’s full potential. It’s always best to go with the operating system the language was built for.
Security
Linux is typically far more secure than Windows as windows has been targeted by hackers and virus writers. However if the servers are configured correctly by an experienced hosting company like RSAWeb. In speed and performance they both perform well.
In conclusion, the key that decides if you should have a Windows or Linux host is what you want your site to do now, in the foreseeable future and what technology you prefer.
Similar Information from this category | 
