There is a lot of confusion for individuals looking for web hosting services. Is Linux or Windows better? Which will better suit your needs? We try and explain the differences to help you choose which is the right hosting technology for you – Linux web hosting or Windows web hosting.

Linux is an open source and largely free operating system and competitor to Microsoft Windows. Open source means that rather than one company having control over the software, many thousands of people commit their spare time to making the product better.

Linux is very popular for web hosting, with most web hosting organisations, like Web3k opting to use Linux for its servers. It’s quick, comes with all the software both we and our customers need to easily manage their websites and it’s a very reliable system.

Some might think that because they use Microsoft Windows at home, they need a web hosting plan that’s Windows powered too, though that’s not the truth. Truth is, if you’re hosting a basic website, both Windows and Linux will work in much the same way and most customers won’t know the difference.

If you’re a seasoned programmer, or you’re getting a web development company to build your souped up website with lots of features, then what hosting you need will come down to how the website is programmed and coded. There are two main programming languages for the web besides HTML, and they are PHP (Linux) and ASP/ASP.Net (Windows).

Windows hosting generally commands a premium too, as the software is at little more expensive. Generally the security and availability of websites on either Linux or Windows is much the same.

So, it really comes down to what how you’re website is coded – if it’s a basic website, coded in HTML or PHP, then a simple Linux based web hosting plan will do the trick. If it’s built using the ASP or ASP.Net programming languages, then a Windows web hosting plan is the go.