Windows vs Linux hosting: which one do you need?

The choice between Windows and Linux hosting has nothing to do with the computer on your desk. You can manage a Linux hosting account from a Windows laptop. What matters is the software your website is built with.

Choose Windows hosting if your site uses

• ASP.NET or ASP.NET Core applications
• Classic ASP pages
• Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL) databases
• Software from a vendor that says it needs IIS

Our Windows hosting runs on Windows Server with Plesk Obsidian and IIS. It supports ASP.NET Core and classic ASP, and every plan includes both MSSQL and MySQL databases, so PHP sites can run alongside .NET ones.

Choose Linux hosting if your site uses

• WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or another PHP application
• Laravel, CodeIgniter or plain PHP
• MySQL or MariaDB databases

Most websites fall into this group. Our cPanel hosting runs on Linux with LiteSpeed Enterprise and NVMe storage. If you prefer the Plesk panel, the same kind of hosting is available as Plesk Linux hosting.

What if you are not sure?

Look at the file names in your site. Files ending in .php mean Linux. Files ending in .aspx, .asp or a web.config file mean Windows. If a developer built the site, ask which framework and database they used.

Can I switch later?

Moving a WordPress site from Windows to Linux is usually simple. Moving an ASP.NET application to Linux means changing the code, so pick the platform the application was written for.