In this article, we will present you with a comparison between two of the most popular web servers, LiteSpeed and Apache, and you will understand the major role they play in the overall performance of your website. We will detail the comparison between LiteSpeed and Apache in terms of features, performance, security, compatibility, and integration. We hope that with this article we can help you make the right choice of server for your project.
Understanding Web Servers
A web server is a computer program that delivers various types of content, such as web pages, to the end user using the HTTP protocol in the global www space. By web server, we mean the software that performs this function. Examples of popular web servers are Apache, IIS, LiteSpeed, Google Web Server (GWS), etc. The term web server is also often used for the physical server itself on which the software runs and refers to the role it plays.
A web server is a software application that helps us to open and display web content on the internet. It processes incoming requests from web browsers or other client applications and provides web pages, files, or data. They play an important role in our daily lives because they allow us to access information, services, and resources online, fill out forms, make purchases, or listen to music. We use them to check our daily mail and social networks. They allow us to exchange files and photos and share them with our loved ones. Choosing the right web server technology for your online business and its development is very important. If you own an online store or other platform, the speed of processing user requests can be crucial. In this article, we'll look at two popular web servers, Apache and LiteSpeed, their pros and cons, and how they handle user requests.
Overview of Litespeed and Apache
These two web servers are among the most commonly used servers, which also include Nginx, Microsoft IIS, and others. The LiteSpeed web server replaces Apache because it is powerful, secure, and easy to use.
What Is Litespeed?
LiteSpeed offers universal web solutions that incorporate and extend the latest technologies. Products include the LiteSpeed Web Server, LiteSpeed Web ADC Load Balancer, the LiteSpeed Cache (LSCache) plugin, and the open-source OpenLiteSpeed Web Server.
The LiteSpeed Web Server can handle thousands of simultaneous connections with a small amount of RAM. Thanks to its security features, it is also much less vulnerable to various attacks.
LiteSpeed Web Server offers a combination of state-of-the-art features. Exceptional scalability, world-class performance, Apache, compatibility and application-level cache acceleration. Launched in 2003, it was the 16th most popular web server in August 2008. In November 2016, LiteSpeed's market share rose from 0.39% to 3.29%, moving it from 10th to 4th most popular web server, according to Netcraft. In 2017, a team from Hong Kong Polytechnic College found it to be one of the six most popular web servers, and a team from RWTH Aachen College estimated that it hosts 9.2% of all HTTP/2-enabled websites. In April 2020, LSWS was used by 69.3% of websites with QUIC and by 47.6% of websites with HTTP/3.
What Is Apache?
In this section, we take a brief look at the history of Apache, a web server. Apache HTTP Server is widely used open-source web server software that runs on many platforms. It was developed by Robert McCool, Richard Schroeppel, and Brian Kladnik and announced in 1995.
The first version of Apache was based on the NCSA HTTPd, another popular web server at the time. The goal of the creators of Apache was to create a stable and powerful alternative to NCSA HTTPd. They achieved this by including features such as support for CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts, SSL encryption, and configuration customization.
Apache is quickly gaining popularity due to its flexibility, performance, and stability. It is increasingly becoming the preferred choice for hosting websites and web applications. Over time, Apache adds new features and improvements, including support for the HTTP/1.1 protocol, modules, and configuration instructions, and integration with content management systems and other technologies.
Today, Apache remains one of the most widely used web servers in the world, often chosen for its reliability, scalability, and broad ecosystem of plugins and tools.
Apache was developed with a process-based architecture in which each connection request is handled by a single process. In general, it works like this: a main server process receives connection requests, and when it does, it creates a child process to handle the request. When another request comes in, the main process creates a new child process to handle the new request, and so on.
Unfortunately, each child process (worker process) puts a strain on the server resources, especially memory. The more requests and open connections there are, the more resources are used. To remedy this, the Apache developers use the prefork pattern, which creates a pool of worker processes that are able and willing to accept connections. When all processes in the pool are busy with connections, Apache creates additional worker processes that are ready for future requests.
On the positive side, this configuration allows for easy insertion of additional code into the overall process, which is included in the form of modules. Many third-party developers take advantage of this ability to write all kinds of modules that extend the core functionality of Apache. Apache also handles dynamic content well because it can add modules for things like interpreting PHP (and other languages) so that it can process code without needing external components. There are also benefits like .htaccess files, which provide additional configuration options but also affect performance because they can be added to any directory and Apache has to check all directories for files.
Apache's module-based structure allows administrators to customize and extend the server's capabilities to their specific needs. By loading only the modules you need and configuring them accordingly, you can optimize performance, improve security, and add a wide range of features without having to change the underlying web server code. These modules can handle everything from serving dynamic content to improving security, logging, and authentication.
There are different types of modules in Apache, categorized by their functionality:
Core modules are essential to the basic operation of the server and provide basic functions such as processing HTTP requests and responses.
Multiprocessing modules (MPM): These modules define how Apache handles concurrent connections. Examples include Prefork, Worker, and Event.
Authentication and authorization modules: These manage user authentication and access control (e.g., mod_auth_basic, mod_auth_digest).
Content creation modules: These modules generate content or provide static files (e.g., mod_php, mod_perl, mod_python).
URL rewrite and redirect modules: Are used to rewrite and redirect URLs (e.g., mod_rewrite).
Security modules: Improve server security (e.g., mod_security).
Logging modules: Manage the logging of server activities (e.g., mod_log_config).
Modules can be compiled into the Apache binary or loaded dynamically at runtime. The second approach is more common as it offers more flexibility. Static modules are compiled into the Apache binary and loaded when the server is started. Dynamic modules are loaded at runtime using the LoadModule instruction in the Apache configuration file (httpd.conf). They also provide configuration directives with which you can adjust their behavior. These directives can be placed in the main configuration files or the .htaccess files for directory-specific configurations. An example of how this works is mod_rewrite, which rewrites and redirects URLs. It is often used to create SEO-friendly URLs, redirect old URLs to new URLs and conditionally redirect URLs.
The advantage of a module-based architecture is flexibility, as you can load only the functions you need to keep the server economical and efficient. You can easily extend the functionality of the server by adding new modules without changing the core.
Litespeed vs Apache: An In-Depth Comparison
We present a comparative analysis of LiteSpeed and Apache web servers in terms of various indicators, including speed and performance, handling of static and dynamic website content, speed and efficiency, security features, and support:
Performance
The LiteSpeed server uses an event-based architecture that is more efficient at handling multiple requests compared to Apache's process-based approach. It handles I/O operations asynchronously, resulting in lower CPU and memory utilization. LiteSpeed provides advanced caching solutions such as LiteSpeed Cache (LSCache) that significantly improve performance, reduce server load, and speed up page load times.
Although Apache performs well, it lags behind LiteSpeed in most cases with high traffic. A process-based approach can lead to higher resource consumption, especially with a large number of simultaneous requests.
Static Content
Thanks to its efficient event-driven architecture and built-in caching mechanisms, Litespeed is ideally suited for the rapid provision of static content.
Apache is reliable at delivering static content.
Dynamic Content
Litespeed provides excellent performance for dynamic content with optimized PHP processing through the custom PHP LSAPI (LiteSpeed API).
LiteSpeed is more resource efficient and requires less CPU and memory resources to process the same amount of traffic compared to Apache. LiteSpeed can handle more concurrent connections and higher traffic with less resource utilization.
Apache can process dynamic content efficiently with various modules, such as mod_php, but it is generally slower compared to LiteSpeed's optimized PHP processing.
Speed and Efficiency
Our Hosting Jump team presents a practical test in which we test the execution of a PHP script with multiple functions and its processing time from both servers. The script contains the following PHP functions:
- fibonacci($n): Generates a sequence of Fibonacci numbers recursively.
- randomString($length): Generated random string of specified length.
- cpuIntensiveTask(): Performs a CPU intensive task by calculating the square root of numbers in a loop.
- diskIntensiveTask(): Performs a disk-intensive task by writing random data to a file, reading it back, and then deleting the file.
- testPerformance(): Calls the listed functions and then calculates the execution time.
The script itself contains the following code:
<?php
// Function to generate the Fibonacci sequence
function fibonacci($n) {
if ($n <= 1) {
return $n;
} else {
return fibonacci($n - 1) + fibonacci($n - 2);
}
}
// Function to generate a random string
function randomString($length = 10) {
$characters = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
$randomString = '';
for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) {
$randomString .= $characters[rand(0, strlen($characters) - 1)];
}
return $randomString;
}
// Function to perform a CPU-intensive task
function cpuIntensiveTask() {
$result = 0;
for ($i = 0; $i < 10000; $i++) {
$result += sqrt($i);
}
return $result;
}
// Function to perform a disk-intensive task
function diskIntensiveTask() {
$filename = 'test_file.txt';
$data = randomString(1024); // Generate random data
file_put_contents($filename, $data); // Write data to file
$content = file_get_contents($filename); // Read data from file
unlink($filename); // Delete the file
return strlen($content); // Return the length of data read
}
// Function to test the performance of Apache/LiteSpeed server
function testPerformance() {
$start = microtime(true); // Start timer
// Perform a CPU-intensive task
cpuIntensiveTask();
// Perform a disk-intensive task
diskIntensiveTask();
// Generate the Fibonacci sequence
$fibonacci = fibonacci(20);
$end = microtime(true); // Stop timer
$executionTime = round($end - $start, 4); // Calculate execution time
echo "Execution time: {$executionTime} seconds\n";
}
// Test the performance
testPerformance();
?>
The result was tested with the "curl" command, and the data looks as follows:
- The first test is performed on a LiteSpeed web server, with the headers checked in advance:
curl -I https://jumptestsite.com/testscript.php
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Connection: Keep-Alive
Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=100
content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
date: Tue, 14 May 2024 19:58:06 GMT
server: LiteSpeed
Processing speed of the respective script:
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{time_total}\n" https://jumptestsite.com/testscript.php
0.026406
- The second test is performed with an Apache web server, and here, too, we check the headers in advance:
curl -I https://jumptestsite.com/testscript.php
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Tue, 14 May 2024 19:59:17 GMT
Server: Apache
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Processing speed of the respective script:
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{time_total}\n" https://jumptestsite.com/testscript.php
0.094409
The test shows the processing time for the same script, and under all circumstances, LiteSpeed is almost four times faster than Apache.
Read our comprehensive article to learn more about the benefits of the LiteSpeed server.
Security Features
Litespeed contains integrated anti-DDoS functions. It is fully compatible with ModSecurity and allows the use of custom security rules and protection against brute force attacks on login pages and other sensitive areas.
Apache makes extensive use of ModSecurity for its web application firewall functions, providing strong protection against a wide range of threats. The modular design of the web server allows for the integration of various modules and configurations to increase security and has a robust mechanism for security updates and fixes.
Support
LiteSpeed offers paid support at various levels, ensuring fast problem resolution and professional assistance. LiteSpeed also has a growing community and extensive documentation but is not as large as the Apache community.
Apache has a large and active open-source community that provides numerous resources, forums, and user-supplied modules. It has extensive and comprehensive documentation covering almost every aspect of server management and configuration. Although it is primarily supported by the community, there are also opportunities for professional support from various third-party providers.
Compatibility and Integration
Despite the flexibility of both web servers and their capabilities, it is necessary to check their compatibility and requirements in order to work properly. Compatibility with control panels that facilitate the management of the content of your projects is also important.
LiteSpeed is compatible with various Unix-based operating systems and with some Linux distributions. It is compatible with the most common systems, such as CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and CloudLinux. It also works with FreeBSD and macOS, and, thanks to the generality of LiteSpeed, it can also be used on various Linux distributions. For its part, Apache is extremely flexible and compatible with a wide range of operating systems, including Unix-based and non-Unix-based systems. In addition to the systems supported by LiteSpeed, the Apache server is supported by OpenBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, and SUSE Linux. Moreover, Windows, including desktop and server versions, supports Apache’s web server as well.
Of course, the Apache web server also works with most of the most widely used control panels. However, this is not to say that LiteSpeed lags behind in this regard. Given the way it works and handles traffic, we have also recently reported compatibility with the most common control panels. Both servers work with cPanel & WHM, Plesk, Virtualmin/Webmin, DirectAdmin, ISPConfig, and more. Since LiteSpeed will be released at a later date, it is possible that some of them may require additional steps for more specific integration with a particular panel.
Both LiteSpeed and Apache offer broad compatibility with operating systems and control panels, making them a versatile choice for a variety of hosting environments. The choice between them often depends on specific performance requirements, resource usage, and personal or organizational preferences.
Pricing
There are two editions of LiteSpeed Web Server: Enterprise Edition and OpenLiteSpeed.
OpenLiteSpeed is open-source software. It is free to use, modify, and distribute through GPLv3 licensing. There are restrictions and incompatibilities when using the control panel, .htaccess compatibility, and the caching of some applications.
The Enterprise Edition is proprietary web software and requires a license
Apache, on the other hand, is a completely free web server and is compatible with all available control panels.
Choosing the right web server also depends on the budget you have available for your project. Consider all the factors and requirements of your software for its proper operation, as this is an important element of a good business strategy where sometimes no compromises can be made.
Litespeed Web Server vs Apache Web Server: Table Comparison
After what has been written so far and the test that has been carried out, we summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the two programs in a table:
| Criterion | LiteSpeed | Apache |
| Performance | High performance | |
| Speed | High speed | |
| Paid/Free | Commercial license required | Free and open-source |
| Compatibility | Compatibility with Apache configurations Possible compatibility issues with some software |
Broad compatibility with operating systems and software |
| Security | Robust security features | Reliable security features with regular updates |
| Interface | User-friendly interface | |
| Support | Smaller community and less free support | Large, active community, extensive documentation, and professional support from various third-party providers |
| Caching | Advanced caching mechanisms | |
| Fewer user-defined modules and extensions | ||
| Complexity in configuration and setup |
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In addition to a fast web server, we also offer you comprehensive protection, such as CageFS, optimized ModSec rules, Imunify360, DDoS protection for our entire network, remote backup, and a free Let's Encrypt certificate. Benefit from all the advantages of a LiteSpeed web server solution by ordering web hosting from Hosting Jump.
Conclusion
Each of the two compared web servers has its advantages and disadvantages. Before choosing LiteSpeed or Apache, you should focus on the needs of your business, the server resources available to you, and the end goal of your online project. One of the most important factors in website performance is loading speed. LiteSpeed offers a wide range of products that, when used correctly, can help improve the loading speed of your website, resulting in a better user experience. The ultimate goal is a fast and smooth website that meets the needs of your users as well as your own.
We hope this information will help you make an informed decision.
For more insights to support your decision making, take a look at our LiteSpeed vs Nginx comparison.
Our Hosting Jump team can help you if you need assistance. Please contact us at sales@hostingjump.com.
