Choosing a UNIX web hosting provider

In the last years, the prices for UNIX web hosting provider services dropped a lot. If the price for an average account with only one domain was $30, five years ago, today the average price is under $6 per month. In order to keep the prices high, UNIX web hosting providers added many new features to their hosting services.

Many times, these extra-features are free and are very useful. From shopping carts to auto responders, from statistics script to private name servers, you can install lots of software packages, like content managements systems, blogs, forums, and many others, with just few clicks.

The UNIX platform is the most used operating system platform utilized on web hosting servers. If Microsoft Windows is installed on about 8 percents of the internet servers, UNIX servers represent more than 90 percents of total. There are some similarities between these operating systems but there are also some important differences.

The advantages

Unix Hosting makes easier to use the most common scripting languages like CGI, PHP and PERL. Even the database management systems work better on UNIX servers than Windows ones. There are about ten different UNIX versions, each one having some advantages and disadvantages. The best way to find what is better for you is to call a UNIX web-hosting provider.

Reputation is one of the most important advantages of any UNIX web-hosting provider. It is well known that UNIX systems work for months without any brake, while systems with Microsoft Windows installed crash sometimes for no reason. This is happening because UNIX does not allow users to delete each other’s files, or to affect the entire systems because of some coding errors. When you decide to start an online business, it is necessary to find a reliable hosting provider. UNIX servers are also the most secured servers while expert hackers can very easy attack Windows systems. Another important advantage of UNIX hosting is the low price, because a UNIX server is cheaper, and its maintenance is cheaper.

The hidden trap

However, there is a hidden reason for these UNIX web hosting providers to offer these features for free to all the customers. They hope that customers will become dependent on their software and that will discourage them from moving their sites to another provider. If you do the mistake to create a site based on their features, you may not take all those packages with you, when changing the web site hosting provider.

To make the best decision, you should gather as much information as possible about UNIX web hosting providers and a complete list with the requirements of your site. Find the best servers that fit your needs and compare their prices and reputation, then you can make the final decision.