In Windows hosting, the server of your web hosting company would be running on the Windows operating system. Windows operating system, with its enhanced security and convenience, provides an elevated compatibility between software and hardware. It also comes with some really useful features for website improvement and development.
It is not that Windows is the only choice when it comes to hosting websites. Website owners can also use UNIX operating system to host their sites. However, Windows, a popular operating system, can be really helpful for your online business giving you several advantages while meeting your web hosting requirements.
There are many advantages of selecting a Windows hosting platform. It is in fact the only choice if your website relies on .net or visual basic as UNIX hosting would not work with these languages. A Windows based server is easier to use for people familiar with the Windows operating system. They would not have to learn a new language just to maintain or update their websites.
Windows servers support .ASP (Active Server Pages) and Dynamically Database Driven Pages. UNIX servers do not come with this support and so site owners planning to use this popular scripting language in their sites would lean towards a Windows hosting platform.
A windows server is able to access data from an Access database and integrate it seamlessly. You can also use Windows based hosting to develop Windows based applications on your sites.
Ideally, your website and its hosting platform would need to be scalable. With Windows OS being compatible with programming platforms such as PHP and MySQL, the corresponding hosting platform would come with the necessary scalability. The edge to the Windows hosting platform also comes from the periodic support and updates provided by Microsoft.
As a website owner, you would need to evaluate the needs and requirements of your websites and the technologies to be used before deciding on the operating system the site needs to be hosted on.
If the scripts are being written in ASP or the advanced ASP.NET, Windows hosting would be a definite pre-requisite. Windows would also be your only choice in the instances when you need integration with MS SQL databases, Access databases and other specific Microsoft tools.
The latest version of Windows operating system is increasingly growing popular as a reliable and stable platform for Windows hosting. However, the best practice would still be to analyze the type of website you have and what you wish to achieve with the same before deciding on whether to use UNIX, Linux, or Windows based hosting.
