Web hosting is a business that provides hardware for the storage, maintenance and presentation of website content. They use servers to store the various files used to create the website on its servers. The web hosting using Unix servers is called Unix Hosting.

Unix is a popular multi-user, multitasking operating system. It was designed by a handful of software developers lead by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs in 1970. Initially Unix was a robust and open system used exclusively by the programmers. It was written in C, a high level programming language. This gave Unix immense flexibility as it could be installed on any machine having a C Compiler. Since various regulations prevented Bell Labs from commercially selling the Unix software, it became available inexpensively. These twin advantages of portability and low price made it quite popular amongst the educational institutions. AT &T broke up from Bell Labs in 1982. Thereafter it began an aggressive marketing program for Unix.
Its portability, flexibility and powerful features have made it the most favored operating system for workstations. However, it lags behind in the personal computer market.

Since the Bell Labs distributed the source code of the original Unix operating system, it became very easy for anybody to customize it as per the requirement.
Currently the Open Group holds the standard specification for Unix and the trademark in trust.

An Internet hosting service is a service that allows content to be loaded on to its Internet servers. Web hosting is a type of Internet hosting service. It allows organizations and individuals to upload information, audio and video files and other content on to their website, web hosting companies own servers on which they store all this information and make it available via the World Wide Web.

Unix, being a very powerful and safe operating system, is a popular choice for web hosting companies. Most of the web hosting companies uses Unix servers to host content on to the Internet.

Unix hosting is defined as the web hosting that supports Unix operating system. Users working on Windows based operating system can also use Unix hosting. However, Windows Hosting is required if the users are dealing with specific Windows based applications. The specific considerations for choosing Windows hosting or Unix Hosting are as follows: -

Scripting language
All websites developed using the basic html can use both windows hosting and Unix hosting. However website using the scripting language PHP are usually associated with Unix. Active Server Pages (ASP) and .Net require Windows Hosting.

Database
This is another common criterion for choosing the hosting environment. All websites using a Microsoft Access or MS SQL Server as there database will require Windows Hosting. MySQL is a database choice for Unix Hosting.

Usually Unix Hosting works fine for most of the websites. Moreover, Unix Hosting has more features than Windows Hosting. In addition, the Unix hosting works out to be a little cheaper than the Windows Hosting.
Many sites available provide Unix hosting facility. The transaction can be done online, the payment made with a credit card. Each Unix hosting site offers a certain fixed storage space say 1000 MB. The user can upload files of size totaling up to that much space. Additional features are personalized web addresses. Unlimited email accounts and aliases are bundled along with the offer. Some Unix hosting sites offer unlimited FTP accounts, 24 x 7 access, unlimited domain aliases and Web based email access.

There are control panel based site administration facilities also available. Unix hosting supports sites developed in Cgi, Perl, PHP and MySql.
Unix hosting is much more stable and dependable than others. It uses Apache to run the web service on the server. The stability, security and dependability of Unix are legendary. It has a proven record of accomplishment of over thirty years.

Unix does not use a Graphical use Interface (GUI). A major part of a computer’s resources is utilized in the graphical functions. Since Unix does not use them, the complete power can be utilized to service the website. Hence, it makes more sense to use Unix hosting to host a web site.