Unix Hosting and Windows Hosting-What do you Prefer?

Different types of web hosting platforms and hosting providers are present for facilitating number of website owners to host their application. However, the quality of a web server is absolutely dependent on the requirements of a website owner and not the platform itself. The compatibility of the web server with the configuration of the website or web app code helps a website owner to choose between different web hosting platforms available in market.

Two popular web hosting platforms, namely

Unix-based Hosting &

Windows-based Hosting

assist website administrators to efficiently accommodate and run their web programs. After making the configuration choices, the process of selecting a particular web server is initiated. An efficient web server should be able to serve the demand for webpages quickly, reliably and securely; no matter if it's a Windows-based server or Unix-based server. The programming language selected for coding a web application is nowhere related to the selection of type of webserver, as is the basic misconception in new administrators.

Selection of a web server depends on following factors:

Stability: Unix hosting is better at handling high load conditions as compared to Windows hosting and so remains stable during large number of requests. Unix machines also require less number of reboots as compared to Windows servers and so provide high up-time and high availability for the visitors.

Database hold: Windows-based hosting is better than Unix-based hosting in terms of number of databases a server can maintain. Windows servers can provide maintain for MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS Access and MS SQL Server, on the other hand Unix server usually keep for MySQL, PostgreSQL only however, some providers may retain for MS Access as well but not in a broader perspective.

Custom Scripting: When a website is developed using advanced scripting languages like php, CGI, Perl, ASP and VBScript, Windows-based hosting is a better solution as compared to Unix-based hosting. Unix hosting is ideal for Python, perl and PHP powered websites.

Pricing: Server hosting prices depend upon the cost of licenses of software and hardware. By assuming the prices of hardware same, Unix-based hosting is more economic as compared to Windows-based hosting; reason being Unix is an open source OS. On the other hand, Windows OS and other related applications like MS Access need an activation license which eventually increases the price of hosting.

To choose an appropriate hosting platform it is desired for an administrator to carefully analyze the requirements and other mentioned factors included in website development.

Christa Joe is the author of this article. She has been writing articles for many software engineering like Q3 Technologies. Moreover, she has been actively involved in providing useful content writing material related to computer programming. Visit http://blogs.q3tech.com for more technology related information.