To address the "it's super expensive" argument, let's consider the actual costs involved, for example the on-demand AWS EC2 LARGE instance prices: Linux - $0

To address the "it's super expensive" argument, let's consider the actual costs involved, for example the on-demand AWS EC2 LARGE instance prices: Linux - $0.24 per hour Windows - $0.36 per hour Windows + SQL Web edition - $0.50 per hour Overwhelming majority of startups spend most of their money on things like payroll and travel. The server costs is relatively small, and increasing it by 50-100% is not a big deal, if what you get in return is productivity gain. So unless you are building the next YouTube I would not consider the cost a factor - use what makes you and your team most productive.