Linux-Based Website Beats Windows-Based Sites

WatchMouse research shows Linux/Apache has less downtime and yields faster websites than Microsoft/IIS

Linux websites have better uptime and load faster than Windows-based websites. Research by WatchMouse, a website monitoring company, also shows that web server platform Apache outperforms the Microsoft IIS platform. Therefore, having a Linux website and an Apache web server platform offers the best choice for professional web pages.

WatchMouse researched the performance of over 1500 websites across different economic sectors in Europe. Most websites in this study are based on either Linux or Windows. Linux offers the best uptime. When looking at web server platforms, the overall opinion favors Microsoft IIS and Apache, although Apache outperforms Microsoft IIS in this area as well. The research finds that apart from operating system and web server platform, uptime is also dependent on the country where the server is based.

On average, Windows and Linux are running more than three-quarters of all websites. However, there are differences between countries. Poland and Germany favour Linux combined with Apache for their websites while the professional sites in UK and Sweden rely heavily on Windows/Microsoft IIS. When looking at the relative performance of the different web server platforms, Linux clearly beats Windows.

One in four of the monitored professional websites have an uptime of 99.9%, which suffices for customer satisfaction. Two-thirds of the websites have an availability of less than 99.9%, which accounts for at least 8 hours downtime, per year. According to WatchMouse this is not acceptable.

“Even though the companies in our study seem to prefer Windows over Linux, our research shows they would be better off using Linux/ Apache based websites. Research has shown that most web users are very impatient and will wait no longer than four seconds for a webpage to load,” said Mark Pors, Chief Technology Officer at WatchMouse. “Companies need to realize that website uptime is crucial for a healthy customer satisfaction and a solid client base. Organizations need to become more aware of the impact the choice of web server platform can have on their overall availability and performance.”

A complete overview of the monitoring results of the WatchMouse Site Availability Index, listing all the sites monitored, can be found on http://www.watchmouse.com/SPI/.

About WatchMouse

Companies can easily monitor their own Internet sites using WatchMouse’s monitoring service. WatchMouse has thousands of customers in more than 70 countries. The services supplied by WatchMouse are available in 10 languages, and analysis is performed from various locations and over numerous networks, using a world-wide monitoring network (www.watchmouse.com).
Contacts

For WatchMouse
Ian Lipner, +1-202-349-3866
ianl {at} lewispr(.)com
or
Mark Pors, +31 30 2522400
mark {at} watchmouse(.)com