Are you looking for hosting services for your Internet business? If you visit any hosting website, you will probably come across a comparison table, offering all the different hosting packages side by side. At a glance, you should be able to see the difference between the various hosting packages, and that will make your buying decision easier.

However, if you are new to web hosting, you may find some of the features unfamiliar, and you are not sure how those features are going to help you building your Internet business. Hopefully, this article will help you.

In general, you will see two different types of servers in the market - Windows based servers, and Linux based servers. These are operating systems, and they differ in terms of performance, features, and pricing.

Since Linux is an open source operating system, you can expect Linux hosting to be more affordable. Features wise, it all depends on the programming language you are familiar with. If you are mainly going to upload static HTML pages, then you can use any type of server you want. But you are going to use PHP as your core language, Linux servers would be a better choice. Modern Windows servers do support PHP, but they are initially built for Windows programming languages only. Therefore, they are more ideal with Windows based programming languages such as classic ASP or ASP.NET. Dot Net is Microsoft's latest framework, and developers are warming up quickly to this powerful framework.

Many popular online software such as forum software, blogs, and content management systems are available for free on the Internet. Linux servers even come with the popular Cpanel control panel, which allows you to install numerous applications for free without any technical knowledge. For instance, if you want to set up a Wordpress blog, you can easily install Wordpress on your server with just a few simple clicks.

Many Internet business owners prefer Linux hosting because of Cpanel. It allows them to install additional software easily, at no extra cost. Hence, they save on software development costs.

Windows servers also have a rather popular control panel known as HELM. Using the control panel, you can add new websites, manage domains, add POP email accounts, subdomains, etc. You can do all that without having to email your hosting company. You can even install your own databases from the control panel.

Linux servers usually offer support for MySQL database, while Windows servers may offer support for Access Databases, MySQL databases, and MSSQL databases.

One frequently seen question in hosting forums is, "Which is a more reliable operating system as a server?" The best answer to that question is that both are reliable servers, but the reliability of the servers depend on the experience of the server administrators. Under the skillful hands of highly experienced server administrators, both types of servers can be very stable and reliable.

So don't just choose based on the operating system. Remember to learn more about the people behind the hosting services as well.