Now that you’ve come in to a decision what hosting platform you’re going to use, these are things that you should consider. There are two major hosting platforms offered by webhosting provider: Windows-based hosting and UNIX-based hosting (in this case, many webhosting provider use Linux-based web server). Which one to choose?

Well, these list may help you deciding what webhosting platform to use:

1. Cost. Since Microsoft requires you to buy any license to use Windows-based server, upgrading or adding features will likely cost you another dollar. While Linux hosting is on open source platform, you can use huge amount of open source softwares for your web applications without significant additional fees.
2. Reliability. In many cases Windows require restarts or reboots of the system after adding or modifying a service. Based on my experience, Linux does require reboot sometimes, but not as often as Windows does. This in turn will affect your website uptime performance.
3. Scalability. Depending on one’s programming experience, Microsoft’s .Net technologies seem easier to be converted into UNIX’s PHP/MySQL, while converting a PHP/MySQL application into a .Net one requires much complex programming. Thus, if you’re planning to make web application that can easily switch between those both platforms, Windows-based hosting is a better choice.
4. Support. Linux users community is a solid group of Linux users around the world that share solutions of many Linux problem, you can easily find support everywhere in the Internet. However, if you are more convenient with paid support from Microsoft, Windows platform is your choice.
5. Portability. Windows platform can serve PHP/MySQL with proper software installed. You can easily port PHP/MySQL applications into Windows hosting.

Once you decided your webhosting platform, I suggest you to check its webhosting rating to compare features and services offered among the webhost providers.

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