Roughly 95% of the web runs on Linux, and for good reasons. But some workloads need Windows, and choosing wrong in either direction costs money or months. The decision comes down to what the application is written in.
Start from the application
Needs Windows Server:
- ASP.NET Framework (the classic one, not .NET Core/.NET 6+) applications.
- Anything requiring IIS specifically, MSSQL with Windows authentication, or Active Directory.
- Windows-only desktop software you need to run on a server: trading platforms (MetaTrader), accounting packages, certain automation tools.
- Remote desktop access for staff.
Runs better on Linux:
- PHP: WordPress, Laravel, Magento, Drupal — the entire PHP ecosystem is developed and tested on Linux first.
- Node, Python, Ruby, Go — same.
- Anything that ships as a Docker container.
- Static sites and everything behind Nginx.
Runs on either: modern .NET (8 and newer) is cross-platform and runs well on Linux, often cheaper. MySQL/MariaDB and PostgreSQL are native to Linux.
If your application is not in the first list, Linux is the default, and it is not close.
Cost
A Linux VPS is the price of the VPS. A Windows VPS is the price of the VPS plus a Windows Server licence — typically £10–25 per month on a small VPS, more with more cores, because Microsoft licenses per core. MSSQL Standard adds more again. Over a year, the same hardware costs 30–100% more on Windows. The licence is bundled into the VPS price by most hosts, per core.
Resources
Windows Server needs at least 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of disk to sit idle; a Linux server needs 200 MB and 3 GB. That is a whole plan size. A 2 GB Linux VPS runs a busy PHP site; a 2 GB Windows VPS is barely bootable. Start Windows at 4 GB.
Management
Linux is administered over SSH with text commands; Windows over RDP with a desktop, or PowerShell. Neither is harder, but they are different skills, and most hosting tooling — control panels, deployment scripts, monitoring agents, tutorials — assumes Linux. Plesk runs on both, and is the easiest way to manage a Windows web server; cPanel is Linux-only.
Updates: Linux security patches apply in seconds without a reboot for most packages; Windows updates are monthly and nearly always want a restart. Plan a maintenance window.
Security
Both are secure when maintained and insecure when not. In practice, exposed RDP is attacked far harder than exposed SSH — the credential-stuffing volume against port 3389 is enormous. A Windows VPS must have RDP behind a VPN, an IP allow-list or at least Network Level Authentication and a non-standard port on day one. See connecting to a Windows VPS with RDP securely.
Performance
For the same PHP application, Linux with Nginx and PHP-FPM is consistently faster than IIS with PHP — the Linux stack is what PHP is optimised for. For ASP.NET on IIS, Windows is the native environment and performs well. Cross-platform .NET is a wash; pick by cost.
The decision in one table
| Your situation | Choose |
|---|---|
| WordPress, Laravel, any PHP | Linux |
| Node, Python, Go, containers | Linux |
| Classic ASP.NET / .NET Framework | Windows |
| Modern .NET (6+) | Linux, unless you need IIS features |
| MSSQL with Windows auth | Windows |
| Staff need a remote desktop | Windows |
| Forex / trading platform | Windows — see Windows VPS for Forex |
| You do not know | Linux |
Mixing both
There is nothing wrong with running the website on Linux and a Windows VPS alongside for the one application that needs it. Each does what it is good at, and the Linux box stays cheap.
VPSPioneer's managed VPS plans are Linux; for a Windows workload, tell us what it is and we will say honestly whether it fits or point you somewhere that suits it better.