When making the decision to have a web presence, one of your initial concerns will be choosing a hosting company and a designer for your website. While the process may look like you would start by choosing your hosting company, the better choice is to find your designer first.

Today’s hosting companies come in three varieties; Linux only; Microsoft Only; or Both
While both operating system platforms can host web pages designed using HTML, each has its own set of peculiarities when it comes to custom or database designed applications. Both platforms have a vast following of enthusiastic designers that specialize in one format or the other. That is why I recommend picking your designer first.

In today’s World Wide Web, designers can pull from a vast library of previously coded scripts, applications and utilities that can add easy-to-use functionality for the viewer. No doubt you are familiar with ongoing debate of MAC Vs PC? A similar debate exists among web designers, especially where custom application design is a requirement. PHP vs. ASP vs. PYTHON vs. Whatever, is a debate that is never won nor compromised. Your website will be designed by a designer with a propensity towards one of these capabilities.

A good designer will engage you in a discussion about several topics related to your site including: the designs look and feel; the target audience; whether or not you need e-commerce or any custom programming; and budget limits. Once you have a comfort level with your designer they will be glad to recommend hosting companies that they have a working relationship with, or, if you choose your own, they will inform you as to what hosted platform you will need in order to accommodate their programming preference.

Your designer may ask you if you have any links to sites that you would like to mimic, if so, they can design a site that will look identical if that’s you choice. But how they get there is uniquely different between a PHP or ASP programmer. While outwardly the web designs look the same, the code each used to produce the desired effects are very different from one another.

Knowing this information up front will help you in choosing both your hosting company and the type of hosted account you will need. If you pick a designer that does custom programming in .NET then you will need a Microsoft hosted website. If PHP is your designer’s preference, then Linux is the desired platform.

  Article Written By :Robert Schonhoff
Date : 7/22/2011