Us here at Aspire Web feel that Windows and Linux both have a purpose within the hosting space but that Windows is neglected somewhat in the shared hosting space. And that is why today we will be discussing the Top 7 Reasons why Windows Hosting Rocks!
Before getting into the countdown let’s clear up something, we aren’t taking anything away from Linux and in some cases Linux will also have this reason or could possibly do it better, but this doesn’t take it away from Windows Hosting and will only be focusing on Windows.
So let’s dig in!
7. ASP.NET
We can’t talk about Windows Hosting or IIS without mentioning ASP.NET, this… what is the correct term here Framework? Well it powers some great software like NopCommerce, DotNetNuke and many others.
The built in capabilities and communitity around ASP.NET make it a great programming platform.
Did you know that stackoverflow and related sites are built on ASP.NET and it is hosted on only a dozen or so servers for millions of hits! Read more about it here
6. IIS… 7+
IIS has evolved A LOT since the Windows 2000 era and now not only can IIS stand against the almighty Linux web servers, it can be faster than them! Don’t believe us? Go test IIS against Nginx and see for yourself.
We will be posting a blog about PHP on IIS vs Nginx (Really Windows VS Linux) soon and we were also surprised to see IIS take the lead in some of our tests after hearing how Nginx was the bestest… well maybe not, but that it really kicked some Apache butt!
5. Resource Throttling
There are some great tools in Windows and IIS to help limit and throttle the usage of a website, from networking through to CPU and Memory. This helps create an environment where everyone on a shared host gets a fair share of their resources.
4. Remote management / Deployment
Not only are there great control panels for Windows (we use SolidCP formerly WebSitePanel) but you can also manage your IIS website from your own local desktop. For those starting out with hosting this makes it a breeze to manage compared to using SSH.
Deploying a new web application from Visual Studio? The remote deployment features available make it much easier than manually copying files and loading databases!
3. Modules / Extensibility
The amount of modules out there for extending IIS is quite amazing.
Think you cannot live without .htaccess support? Well with ISAPI Rewrite you can support it on Windows hosting.
Need a reverse proxy, no problem there is an official Microsoft plugin for that too.
2. Website security
The way that IIS isolates each website (when configured to do so like on our servers) provides great security for your website and others running on shared hosting. If your website crashes no problem, it will only affect you and no one else.
While not the easiest to set up you can have multiple websites for your one website…. why would you do this I hear you say? Well for security, you can run your website under a specific user with limited access to your files. This will help in some cases where there are vulnerabilities and can make some not even possible to pull off.
1. It can run the kitchen sink of programming languages
Need a website that can run ASP.NET but supports some Classic ASP while utilising PHP for a WordPress blog and handling your API via NodeJS? Well Windows hosting can support all of these technologies on a single website. Yes on a single website, we have experienced this ourselves and love how everything can work together so well.
You get the best of Microsoft’s .NET framework while not missing out on great open source languages and at a performance level that truly is mind boggling.
We wouldn’t generally recommend doing the above unless required but it is nice to know it’s possible.
Do you agree with our list, did we miss something? Let us know in the comments below.
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