If you are just starting a website and you are not sure which hosting company is right for your business, you may choose the wrong company. The hosting world is split up into basically two types of hosting Linux Hosting or LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) and Windows hosting. If you are running a script that requires linux then you will need a Linux host.
Another question you need to ask yourself is what am I going to do with my site. Will I be selling products online, writing a blog, creating a forum? Depending on your web needs you will need to choose a host that supports your needs and may even have something for you to use right out of the box. If you’re looking for a forum you may want to choose a host that has preinstalled forum scripts for you to use.