UNIX or Windows Hosting: How Do I Choose?

Your web hosting company is responsible for maintaining the physical location of your business web site. That location consists of computers called servers which are connected to the Internet and which, as their name shows, serve your pages to customers interested in visiting your business web site.

Like all computers, servers are controlled by operating system software. For Web hosting, there are two main operating platforms: Microsoft® (Windows) and UNIX. No matter which platform your web hosting company uses, all of your customers will be able to see your business web pages. The server platform is not affected by the customer’s computer or browser.

In fact, many of the best web hosting companies offer both UNIX web hosting and Windows web hosting platforms and are able to provide their web hosting service customers with the appropriate platform for their business website and the features those sites include.

What difference does the platform make to you and your web-based business site? Unless you are doing your own web page design and incorporating advanced features in your business web site, the choice of platform probably won’t make a lot of difference to you.

If you, or your Web designer, are doing your own business web page programming, you already know which platform you’ll need: your choice of a UNIX web hosting plan or a Windows web hosting plan will depend on whether you are using UNIX-based tools such as the mySQL® database and other scripting features, or whether your business website is built with Microsoft® tools such as ASP/Access and the MS SQL database.

Bear in mind that your choice of UNIX web hosting or Windows web hosting is only affected by your choice of advanced web programming tools such as mySQL®.