Linux Hosting - Best Linux Web Hosting (2013)

Note from the Editor: The Linux Web Hosting plans displayed are rated by the best value for the price. Overall value is determined by price, uptime reliability, quality of customer service, and user feedback found on forums.

Disclosure: We are a professional review site that receives compensation from the companies whose products we review. We test each product thoroughly and give high marks to only the very best. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own.

A Linux-based (also commonly called Unix-based) Web host uses the free and open-source Linux operating system to drive its servers. Linux hosts usually rely on a LAMP structure, which means they use the Linux operating system, Apache server software, MySQL database and PHP scripting.

Because it's open-source-based, Linux hosting allows you to take advantage of a wide range of other free and open-source applications and scripts, including CGI, Perl, PHP and the MySQL database. That means Linux-based hosting offers great flexibility at a typically lower cost than Windows hosting. Linux servers also support Telnet, which Windows servers don’t, and they tend to run faster than Windows servers, which means faster load times for your Website.

Other applications supported by Linux include Evolution, the Firefox Web browser, the GNOME desktop, Open Office, PostgreSQL and Python.

Linux hosting provides a stable and reliable environment for your Website, as it places fewer resource demands on servers. The open-source programming community also means you'll be able to quickly access repairs and patches for any bugs and glitches your site might encounter.

You'll find there are a large number of Linux website hosting plans out there offering everything from the cheapest (even free) basic shared service to advanced and dedicated hosting with multiple databases, secure e-commerce capabilities and support for a wide range of applications. The right one should be able to meet all your hosting needs, including ample disk space and bandwidth, email accounts, databases, a Web-based control panel, WebMail, FTP access, ecommerce and support for applications like Weblogs, discussion forums, php hosting, live chat, photo galleries and more.

So if you are looking for a great low cost hosting option, a cheap linux web hosting plan is probably right for you. If you don’t have the need for any windows based programs, then there is no need to pay the extra cost. So if you are looking for a reasonably priced web hosting service, this is the plan that you should select.