If you are looking into web hosting solutions, you may have heard that there are Linux and Windows based web-hosting options out there. So what does that mean and what’s the difference? Well, we’re going to take a quick look.

Windows

Microsoft created the Windows based server platform. They also own it which means you need to pay them (in one way or another) to use it if you are building a server.

Linux

The Linux based server platform is open source and in most cases is free to use when you are building a server. With this said, you will still have to purchase a hosting package to use on a Linux system and in many cases there is little to no difference in the price of Linux or Widows.

Do You Need One Or The Other?

One question many people have is if they run a Windows machine, whether they need to have a Windows server host. That is not necessary. Either type of hosting platform will work just fine.

Why Does it Matter Which One You Choose?

When choosing a server platform, the type of things you should be thinking of is what you will need to use that server for. Are you going to be running a lot of PHP files? POP3? Or are you going to want to use things like FrontPage to publish websites or have Windows Streaming Media. While Linux will work just fine for the first options, once you want to be able to use Windows based applications, the Windows based platform will be an easier and more convenient choice.

Related posts:

  1. What is Cloud Hosting?

Tagged with:

Filed under: web hosting

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!