Comparison of WINDOWS and UNIX Hosting Platforms

Hosting: UNIX or Windows?

For an experienced webmaster, the answer to this question is simple, while for a beginner it can feel like a dead end.
There is a misconception about these two platforms, and the biggest mistake beginners make is thinking that a website must be hosted on the same platform that was used during development. If the site is intended to be hosted on a UNIX server, then it must also be developed for it.
This is incorrect. The operating system used during website creation can be any.

Ease of Use of Hosting Platforms

In recent years, providers have done their best to simplify website administration for both UNIX and Windows. Today, there is no difference between these platforms in terms of simplicity and ease of use. If you are an experienced user and prefer using a shell, then choose UNIX.
However, if you are a beginner, you will find a user-friendly web-based management interface on both platforms.

Hosting Reliability

According to specialists, UNIX hosting is more reliable, but based on our 20 years of experience, IIS6 and IIS7 on Windows show that the reliability of the Windows platform is very close to UNIX.
Reliability largely depends on the level of training of the service personnel. This means that when choosing a platform, you should consider their characteristics, as there is no significant difference in terms of speed and reliability.


Hosting Functional Capabilities

This is the factor where the two platforms differ the most. However, there are some tasks implemented on one platform that can also be implemented on the other. The main difference lies in how the result is achieved. For example, if your website uses a database, you can use PHP/MySQL for UNIX or ASP/MS SQL for Windows. There is also a growing trend where both platforms support similar functions. For example, Microsoft FrontPage can run on both UNIX and Windows.

If your web page uses Microsoft tools (Access, SQL, ASP, FrontPage, Visual InterDev, Microsoft Office Extensions, Microsoft Office, MSSQL databases), AFB Communications recommends the latest version of Windows.

For users who use Perl, PHP, MySQL, Apache, we recommend a Unix server.

Note: You can use either a Windows or Unix server regardless of the operating system installed on your computer or local network.