Linux Hosting Vs Windows Hosting

Linux is not always cheaper to run than Windows, Microsoft have done a lot to address this issue

Whether Windows or Linux you require an experienced sysadmin and a well setup box will take about the same admin time, the costs are about the same therefore for operating the box. Obviously if you don’t have admins for the platform you choose, then there is a training cost.

Windows has a higher purchase cost (about £10/month on SPLA), Linux has many free distributions.

As this is a webhosting forum, we’ll assume the primary use of the box is shared web hosting and that we need a control panel.

Working on the basis that both Windows & Linux would be setup with GPL or other system / distribution service software to provide email, DNS, web server etc…

Using list figures…

Helm 4 monthly leased license £30
or
DotNetPanel monthly leased license £25

cPanel monthly leased license £30
Most cPanel’s have Fantastico - Yearly license £60 - £5/month

Naturally different server providers will have better deals than others and the end user price is probably less than this. You can also select different control panels, different licensing options - Helm & DotNetPanel have limited domain licenses which may work out cheaper than cPanel. Direct Admin is cheaper than cPanel.

The base license costs for a shared web hosting system using the popular control panels works out about the same for both platforms

Potentially you could in fact offer more hosting options on Windows as you can run Perl, PHP, Python, ASP, ASP.Net, Ruby on Rails (and probably many more) and offer MySQL, MS-SQL and Access databases all on the single Windows box.

You should select the hosting platform based on your needs and what your customer requirements are rather than that of cost or simply duplicating what another hosting company does. A well maintained Windows box will be just as good as a well maintained Linux box.