I’m completely flustered so be warned that this is a rant.

Having built sites for years, I’ve seen all kinds of web hosting. The most difficult to work with are sites hosted on Windows servers. Let’s get this straight, this is not a Microsoft bashing party. I believe that certain operating systems are best at certain jobs and industries. When it comes to web servers. Linux based servers are the best.

It’s not only best because it does the job of a web server really well but also because so many scripts we use and enjoy today are built on foundation software meant to be run on Linux based servers. For example:

• WordPress
• aMember

As you can imagine, when you try to run these on other operating systems it just is not what it should be. You may be able to get the site up and running sure but you would either lose some great features or run into problems that are difficult, sometimes impossible to work around.

Here’s what I mean. We received a work order to clone a WordPress site to another server. Well that’s easy just use BackupBuddy. However, all of that came to a screeching halt because BackupBuddy and other backup plugins or scripts tend to be problematic on Windows based servers. This to me is not the plugin’s fault.  As a developer myself I know we sometimes choose to code things a certain way and that method is just not compatible and sometimes not available on Windows servers. So that’s out of the window.

I try another method. Since I don’t have access to the database why not install a database only backup plugin to grab a download. That too came to a screeching halt. Due to some crazy configuration on the server, none of the folders can be written to. You can’t install a plugin straight from the depository and even if you did you can’t do any sort of backup regardless what your plugin is because the server won’t allow any plugin to save the backup to the disk. A final nail in the coffin, I didn’t have access to change this on the server.

On a Linux server that would have been easy. I would just fire up my FTP program right click on the folder and change permissions. Then go along my merry way.

By now, I’d hit so many walls it is beginning to make me a really unhappy, angry bear. Most of all, it has cost the client many times more. What would have taken me 15 minutes tops is now taking a lot more than an hour. Can you say ARGH!

There are actually two lessons here.

1. You cannot be too queasy about granting high level access to your technical staff. Especially if they’ve proven themselves, and have done this for a long time. They may be able to work around it, just keep in mind workarounds always cost more.
2. Stay away from Windows based hosting. Please. Especially if you are using WordPress and want to enjoy all the fabulous plugins that you spent hundreds and thousands of dollars on. Eventually, you will hit a roadblock and there’s nothing you nor your tech people can do about it. By then it would be a huge problem because you’d have to spend more time and money moving or getting a secondary host. I’ve done it before – move a membership site at 80% completion to a Linux based server because it just won’t play nice.

Bottom line is it will cost you. It will cost you during setup and it will cost you during everyday running of your site. This is simply my take on it. I’m sure there are reasons and advantages to Windows servers. From where I stand as a developer for 12 years, I just haven’t seen one yet.