Choosing the right hosting service for your web presence is nowadays crucial for your business, as it has a direct effect on its performance, the experience of your customers visiting it, their and your data’s security, the ranking of your site in search engine queries, and many others. If you are going to opt for VPS hosting, this is a wise choice under many circumstances. It is significantly safer and more reliable than shared hosting, but much cheaper than a dedicated server, which makes it a very efficient and flexible service for a broad variety of customers who either start a business or are already advanced.

But other than that, there is another important aspect of opting for the right web hosting solutions – choosing the operating system. This one has an effect on the operation of your server and depends as well on the things you are going to do with it, which are your preferences and priorities.

There are two main options available today – Windows Server and Linux with its numerous distributions. Today we are going to look at why you might want to choose this or that one, breaking down the pros and cons of each. Let’s start!

Windows Server features

Windows Server is the server operating system designed by the Microsoft giant corporation. This one is paid proprietary software with a closed source. The advantages of Windows VPS consist more in its adaptedness to corporative use, with various solutions to provide effective operation of corporative networks and corporate ecosystems, in particular, MYSQL database or ASP.net. Windows provides you with relatively easy management, a lightweight graphical interface, an extensive community as well a decent amount of documentation dedicated to it. 

Linux features

Linux is another well-known operating system that is widely used on servers as well. In contrast to Windows, this is a free and open-source operating system, which means, on the one hand, an obvious advantage in terms of cost-efficiency, and, on the other hand, a huge variability in terms of customizability and a vast community of developers. Therefore, if we choose Linux VPS, we’ll have to choose also between various distributions available for it – Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, FreeBSD, etc., all with their features, interfaces, update and support policies, and community of developers. 

Windows vs. Linux comparison 

Now, let’s see, which are the strong and the weak points of each server operating system and compare them.

Security

Both Linux and Windows can provide you with decent standards of security, especially if your VPS is properly managed, and updated, and if you pay enough attention to the security measures to be applied on the server. However, if we need to answer, which system shows better results independently of how you take care of your VPS, then the answer will be Linux.

To make a long story short, Windows as a corporate and proprietary closed-source software is a more attractive goal for cybercriminals. The open-source code of Linux OS, on the other hand, is harder to hack, considering also that Linux exists in different distributions and a potential hacker would have to make many times more efforts to create a universal piece of malware for all forms of Linux. Furthermore, the open-source nature attracts a bigger community of developers which means that more people are regularly monitoring the threats that arise and working on fixing security breaches.

Reliability

Again, the general level of reliability available on both systems is okay for the most part of users, but if we ask,  which one copes better, after all, the answer will be again Linux. The developers of the Linux kernel-based operating system focus more on creating a more lightweight, flexible, and stable OS, and they perform this task decently. Windows in its turn are considered more “sluggish” and more susceptible to crashes. For example, if we install updates on the server with Windows, we have to reboot the system after. Linux doesn’t require it, it can instead work without interruptions for the most part of the time. Don’t forget to take into consideration that uptime is one of the key factors when we are talking about the website’s performance. According to HostingCoupon.Codes, you can get a discount for hosting VPS services for both Linux and Windows for a cost-effective solution to your needs.

 

Interface

While on Linux OS we often have to deal with the command line, on Windows server we have to deal with a convenient user interface. For less experienced users, this can be a faster way to figure out, how it all works, but there isn’t much difference once the user has acquired enough experience, while other features have a direct effect on the performance of the website.

Conclusion

There is no definite answer to the question of which server operating system to choose when opting for a VPS. All systems cope well with the tasks that they have been created for. However, after reading this article you might have seen that Linux is eventually better for a more diverse range of users, while Windows is more aimed at corporations. If the latter is not the group you belong to, it might be a good idea to consider choosing VPS hosting Debian by HostZealot hosting provider. This is a pretty universal option for an affordable price and from a reliable hosting provider. We wish you a wise choice. Take care!

 

Learn more

https://digi-help.com/which-operating-system-should-you-choose-for-your-vps/

https://chirarup-goswami.medium.com/linux-server-vs-windows-server-9b76ce8a72d

https://www.peerspot.com/products/comparisons/ubuntu-linux_vs_windows-server