It is a common misconception that if you use Windows in your business, you need Windows Hosting for your website. This is not the case. The browser you use to view a website neither knows nor cares what operating system is being used to serve the HTML pages that make up the website. In fact, the majority of the websites that you use every day, including Google, run on Linux or Unix servers. Why then would you need Windows Hosting?

Advantages of Windows Hosting

Windows Server and IIS are developed and maintained by Microsoft, and are compatible with all other Microsoft products.

People who develop websites using the Microsoft .Net platform or Visual Basic or Active Server Pages scripts need to use windows hosting.

Database driven sites can be built using Microsoft Access or SQL Server. If you need to integrate your site with existing Microsoft databases, Windows hosting is your best bet.

Web sites on windows hosts can be developed using the familiar interface of Microsoft tools such as Microsoft FrontPage, Visual Interdev, and Microsoft Access.

The actual administration of the server itself is often seen as less complicated for people used to a windows desktop environment. Note that this only applies if you are actually running the server itself, rather than having your website hosted on it.

Disadvantages of Windows Hosting

Cost -The server hosting your web site requires licenses for the operating system, webserver and database software just like desktop systems. Windows Server and other related applications like SQL Server each cost a significant amount of money; on the other hand, Linux is a free operating system to download, install and operate.In addition, windows server need to be of a higher specification to achieve the same performance as linux servers. This results in Windows hosting being a more expensive platform.

Reliability - Windows servers have a reputation for being less reliable than Unix/Linux servers, needing frequent reboots, while unix/linux servers seldom need rebooting. Servers running on Linux enjoy extremely high up-time and high availability.

Windows Hosting in US

Windows hosting is more expensive than linux hosting - so if you really want windows hosting - why not save yourself some money by hosting your site in the US? The favourable exchange rate makes for good deals - iPower Windows hosting gives you a choice of windows hosting packages starting at only £9.95/month for 10Gb with 50Gb transfer and Active Server Pages .Net 2.0 support. Thats less than £5.75 at the time of writing! Not sure about hosting in US? Read my article 4 reasons to host your site on US servers