Whether you need to create a website for your online blog or e-commerce business, or you want to practice running your own servers, you’re faced with one very important choice: Should you run a server on Linux or Windows?

The first difference is pretty straightforward. Windows is sold by a for-profit company, Microsoft, while Linux is open-source. This means that hosting companies that run Windows servers have to pay for a license. The hosting company will then pass that cost on to you, making Windows hosting a bit more expensive than Linux.Linux is completely open-source and it’s free. You’ll only be paying for the hardware and services when you get a Linux hosting, not for a Windows license.

When it comes to popularity, Unix is the leader — hands down. As of 2020, over 71% of all websites on the internet run on a Unix system. Linux, an open-source version of Unix, is used by 42.8% of all the websites that use Unix. 33% of all websites run on one of the major Linux distros, and other Unix systems like BSD, Darwin, Solaris, and Minix only serve 0.1% of all websites.

The best guess is that those unidentified systems are either advanced Linux distros or were simply not mentioned on the host websites. Even if they aren’t, they’re still using Unix or Linux systems, not Windows.

So far, technology is the most important difference between Linux and Windows hosting. Linux uses custom software and supports most programming languages, while Windows uses specific Microsoft software to run and manage data.

Linux works on MySQL, while Windows servers use MSSQL. Windows hosting also uses Microsoft ASP.NET as the main programming language. These are not very wide-spread technologies, and most beginner programmers would have to invest considerable time to master them.

Windows Server Datacenter and MSSQL are mostly used in large corporations to develop proprietary servers. If you’re looking for a job in one of those, or you think your future projects may include handling legacy projects from big corporations, a Windows hosting may be a good idea. Also, if you need MSSQL or ASP.NET for your future employment or to run applications on the website, Windows is the way to go.

In most other cases, Linux should serve your needs just fine. MySQL is the most popular data management system, and it has plenty of supportive software as well. It supports PHP, Perl, and Python, which makes it accessible to developers of many backgrounds.