We earn commission when you buy through affiliate links.
This does not influence our reviews or recommendations.Learn more.
Open source web servers are applications which have been released under an open-source license.
Thankfully, times have changed, and new solutions have emerged for specialized needs.
So lets take a look at some of the best and most popular open-source web servers available today.
), and easy deployment of PHP.
Heres what makes Apache great:
Is Apache for you?
In short, yes.
And the trend continues today.
While Apache is arguably at par today, Nginx offered some stunning improvements that helped it win.
Is Nginx for you?
If you like to architect web applications to your liking, Nginx is a big plus.
And, yes Nginx is HTTP/2 ready.
Caddy
One of the hottest new frameworks making splashes in the open-source community recent isCaddy.
For instance, Lets Encrypt integration for SSL can be done in a mere three lines of config.
Heres why Caddy is drawing a ton of attention:
Is Caddy for you?
That said, it works best when youre happy with the defaults.
you’re able to getCaddy on KamateraVM from as low as $4 per month.
Lighthttpd is built on the asynchronous request handling model, and so essentially mirrors how Nginx works.
It also lacks the fancier features of Nginx, such as SSL proxy, HTTP/2, and the like.
Is Lighthttpd for you?
Other than that, it doesnt have much to offer when compared to the alternatives.
OpenLiteSpeed
OpenLiteSpeedis the open source flavor of the enterprise web server offered by LiteSpeed Technologies.
There are many reasons to like OpenLiteSpeed:
Is OpenLiteSpeed for you?
Since its fine-tuned for PHP performance, PHP-based codebases and projects can benefit immensely.
Although Cherokee isnt very actively developed, its still a good bet for most everyday projects.
Do check it out!