One of the most confusing decisions someone new to web hosting will have to make is which platform their server should be on. There are a number of different choices out there but the main two are Linux and Windows web servers. There are also a lot of sources of information about hosting, but the majority of them are tainted by the author’s biased personal opinion unfortunately confusing the issue. Having just put in some solid hours researching the topic I have come to the conclusion that in general it quite probably does not matter which server you use. For the majority of people it will be far more important to choose a really good web host than to worry about the server-type that they implement.

Microsoft developed and owns the Windows operating system. Linux is open source and generally free. This means it can often be more expensive to set up and run a Windows server. However, this fact doesn’t really affect you unless you are actually setting up a server for yourself and if you’re reading this article then I’m guessing that it’s safe to assume you’re not. This article is going to offer information for those trying to decide which hosting company to go with. The cost involved in running a server does not affect the cost of a web-hosting package as much as you may think. Despite the general opinion that Windows servers are more expensive to run, buying a Windows hosting package can often turn out to be just as cheap or even cheaper than an equivalent Linux hosting package.

Some people naturally assume that because their PC runs Windows they need to buy a Windows hosting package. This isn’t true. Access to your web account will most likely be through FTP or a control panel and both servers support these methods. The main difference is that some of the FTP commands are slightly different between Linux and Windows and some FTP programs will be designed with one or the other in mind. This means you may occasionally find that when you try and get your FTP program to do something it returns an error message, but it won’t happen very often.

Your choice of server platforms should be dictated by the use to which you intend to put it. The majority of web features run fine on both platforms including PHP, mySQL, POP3 etc. If you intend to create your site using ASP, FrontPage, the .NET environment, Windows Streaming Media, Access, MSSQL, or any of the other Microsoft proprietary technologies then you probably need to use a Windows host. There is limited support for a number of these technologies in Linux, but they can be expensive and are usually lacking in features. It is probably worth considering the fact that if you use server specific technologies and then change hosts you’ll have a much harder time of it than if you use technologies that can be run on any system. Having it run generic technologies removes the need to focus on specifics and allows you to focus on the quality of service itself.

The reliability and stability of the different platforms have been the topic of many long arguments. The main reason that Windows is seen as being insecure is that it is the most widely used operating system for home PC’s. People spend more time looking for flaws in the most common system. With Linux being the most common server type, it has a surprising number of successful hack attempts made on it. In the end the security of both platforms comes down to the competency of the system administrators. If you are security minded then you’ll do better to make sure that the hosting company is reputable and highly skilled than to worry about the server they use.

In terms of performance there’s not a huge difference between the two servers. Linux reportedly performs faster because Windows (as usual) attempts to offer an ‘all in one’ package instead of the extendable Linux implementation. You’ll generally not notice a difference but if performance is of utmost importance to you then maybe this will influence your decision.

I’ve come to the conclusion that unless you are specifically using features that are unique to one platform or another your time will be much better spent looking for a really good quality host than a really good quality server. Developers are constantly improving both Linux and Windows so they should be fairly close in terms of features, security, and reliability for a long time. It’s the people implementing them that you should be basing your decision on.

1. The reliability of the service and their offers.

A brand new hosting provider which boasts features that are too good to be true usually won’t last for too long. Let’s take the example of one host (I won’t give names here) that went offline only a few weeks ago. They were offering 500MB of storage, 10GB of bandwidth per month, domain hosting, unlimited domain parking, CPanel with just about all possible features, absolutely no ads (not even a request to link back), and this only for 150 posts in their forum. Sounds too good to be true? Betcha! After they cashed in two fat checks from AdSense they simply went offline. No prior notice, no apology, nothing.

Things to watch out for:

- Design. If the site looks like it was bought from a man in a white van, or if it’s using a design from a free template site, it’s probably just a waste of time. If these guys couldn’t pay a web designer $100 for a decent layout, they don’t probably have the skills to run such a site.

- How long they’ve been around. I’m not saying that new sprung hosting services can’t make it, just be careful when choosing one that’s two months old.

- Check their Google PR, ranking on free hosting directories and any other location you might think of. If the site has tons of inbound links, the owners have probably spent a considerable amount of money advertising it, so they plan to do their best to keep the service up.

2. Ads

Advertising placed on your web space is how free web hosting providers support their service. Having someone else’s ads displayed on your page is usually the price you have to pay for their free service. There are a select few hosts that won’t plug in banners or other forms of advertising in exchange for your performing other services in their favour (like posting in their forum or referring other members). What you should look for:

- How well the ads blend into your design. A red frame at the top will probably not go well with your blue template. If possible, pick a host that allows you to place a banner code anywhere you want– this way you can put it wherever it best fits.

- Whether or not they display targeted ads. If your site is on dog chewing toys and the ads are on car deals your visitors will probably not like it. Worse, watch out for sites that display pornographic ads.

- What kind of ads they’re displaying. Never, under any circumstances, sign up for a site that advertises through popups. Popups are extremely annoying, and most visitors will not return to your site.

- Do they allow your own ads to be displayed? It’s one BIG issue you should know before signing up if you plan to make money with your site.

3. Tools and scripts available

Forums, guest books, counters, polls are always nice features to add to your site. If you can’t or don’t want to handle installing such an addon from a third party you could look for a host that already provides it. Keep in mind that these tools are not always the best and that there are most likely many other free ones out there. On the other hand, if your chosen host provides very few or no such tools, then it’s probably either running on a slow server and doesn’t want to clog it up or doesn’t give a dime about their customers.

4. Monthly bandwidth and what they do after you eat it up

Always, no matter how small your site is, look for a host that offers at least 1GB of traffic per month. Also consider going with a host that will offer you a paid subscription if you go over this quota instead of simply blocking access to your page. Say you hit the jackpot and visitors start flowing in like crazy from day one. Next day you don’t want them to see a page like “Sorry, this site has gone over the allotted bandwidth, please check back in a month or so”.

Try this simple calculation: say your pages average 50kB, including images, or (approx.) 0.05MB. Now let’s say your visitors browse 3 pages on average, before they leave the site. That’s 3 x 0.05 = 0.15 MB. If we divide 1GB (or 1,000 MB) by 0.15, we get 6,666 — the average number of visitors you can get in one month without going over the bandwidth quota. Divide that by 30 and you can have 222 visitors per day. Also keep in mind that search engines also eat up bandwidth, a deep crawl from a spider can eat up as much as 100MB if you have a lot of pages.

5. What your URL will look like

Even though you can get a short URL for free from services like http://go.to or a subdomain (.co.nr / .biz.ly etc), it’s always best if your host can offer you a URL that’s easy to remember. Choose a host that offers a subdomain if available (http://youraccount.theirdomain.com as opposed to http://www.theirdomain.com/youraccount).