Is os x server on mavericks a good idea for web hosting a small business website?

Plenty of people use it for businesses of all sizes. Under the covers, it's only the same software that runs 90% of all web sites everywhere: Apache.

If you have a particular concern, feel free to ask us about it, but generally it's fine.

thelocalbat

Yes. I do what you are talking about for our small business.

Take a look at some things to consider here:https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5574270?answerId=23841705022#23841705022

My experience is in generic HTML, PHP, and interactive using FileMaker Server, sorry.

Don't know anything about Muse, but if it says it works with Apache it should work fine with OS X Server.

I have a web site which does a great deal more than accounts, orders and shopping cart and it runs fine on OS X Server. But you may not be able to do that stuff with Muse.

Sure. OS X Server can do this. Works quite nicely, too.

You've already gotten some good answsers.

Now playing devil's advocate here, ask yourself a few questions...

Do you want to...

• be IT support? OS X Server is low-overhead, but definitely not no overhead management.
• learn more about the Apache web server?
• know how to keep a server secure against attacks?
• understand public DNS services and (on a NAT'd network) local DNS server configurations?
• troubleshoot an IP network, and keep your own DNS services?
• coordinate with the ISP for one (or potentially more) network links?
• acquire and implement SSL/TLS certificates?
• be on call to keep your software current, and applying patches to OS X and to your own local add-ons, when security breaches and security updates are announced?
• learn how to implement VPNs to allow secure remote connections into your server?
• pay for a static IP connection and a network link large enough for your specific requirements?
• maintain on-site and probably also off-site (secured) backups of your critical data, and occasionally test the recovery from backups?
• etc...

If you are accepting online payments using credit cards, then you'll need to comply with applicable PCI DSS requirements, and either keep the data and the transactions locked down, or deal with a payment gateway service of some ilk, or potentially (probably? both of these. If there's money involved with a web site, you're a target. Two major retailers — and reportedly at least three more undisclosed retailers — have recently had credit card and customer data breaches recently reported.

There are alternatives to running your own servers, too. If your current provider isn't providing the hosting services you want, there are thousands of competitors to your current provider. Ranging from full-on hosting including folks that host sites akin to what you're probably using now, to running your own servers via virtual private servers or dedicated hosted servers at any number of providers, to any number of local server choices. Including OS X Server. Which yes, can do what you want here.