The statistics are showing that almost 80% of websites are hosted on open-source servers. An open-source website server is a combination of software and hardware. From the hardware side, it works as a machine that stores software and other essential information on the website.
From the software side, it has a collection of protocols and methods. These protocols and methods control different hosted files. In the past, Apache was the only open-source website server to host websites. Nowadays, lots of open-source website servers are available. Here, we will discuss the best open source website servers that you can use to host websites.
Apache:
It is developed by Apache Software Foundation. It was released in 1995. Nowadays, it has become the most popular and widely used open-source server to host websites. That’s why it is powering almost 37% of all the websites.
This essential open source server is written in the C language and it is highly customizable. By utilizing its customization options, you can easily enhance the functionality of your website. It is also providing an opportunity for virtual hosting support for the users.
By availing of this opportunity, you use this server to host multiple domains and websites. This open-source website server is available on all platforms.
You can easily use this open-source website server on Linux, Windows, and other platforms. It has a large collection of modules. These modules are providing tons of functionalities for the users.
Among others, CloudStack by Apache Software Foundation is open-source cloud computing software for creating, managing, and deploying cloud services. You can opt for Cloud Computing certification to learn about cloud hosting service providers like AWS, Azure, GCP, etc.
Nginx:
In the open-source website servers, you will have to face lots of problems regarding performance. If you are looking for a high-performance robust web server, Nginx is the best choice for you.
It is providing an essential feature of the load balancer to the users. With the help of this feature, you can double up your website’s performance. It is also known as an ideal open source website server to host high-traffic websites.
Its reason is that Nginx can handle almost 500,000 requests in a second. This open-source website server has asynchronous architecture. The asynchronous architecture of this server can handle a high load.
That’s why lots of big websites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are using this open-source website server as a host. The market share of Nginx is almost 31% of all the web hosting servers.
Caddy:
If you are looking for a hot open-source website server, Caddy is the best choice for you. The interface of Caddy is just like Nginx. Anyhow, it is providing simplified options for the users. For example, if you want to install an SSL certificate, you can easily install it just by using three lines of configuration.
Another benefit of this open-source server is that it is providing an SSL certificate by default. It is easily embeddable. You can easily use it as a library in other programs. It is written in Go. It has almost all the built-in things. This essential quality of Caddy has made it easy to use and install.
This open-source website server can also support some other things like virtual hosting, URL rewrites and caching, etc. Caddy doesn’t have a wide share in the market. According to W3techs, its market share in the web hosting servers is only 0.05%.
Lighttpd:
If you are looking for the best open-source server for speed-critical applications, Lighttpd is the best solution for you as recommended by a dissertation help firm.
Its reason is that this website server has a very small footprint. Therefore, it is very economical when we have to utilize some essential resources of a website server like CPU utilization.
The modern website servers fail to offer resource usage but this open-source website server has overcome this problem. Its reason is that it is providing low memory and low CPU environments to the users.
The working interface of this website server is just like Nginx. Nginx is providing some fancy features to the users. In these fancy features, there come SSL proxy and HTTP/2, etc. The main drawback of this open-source website server is that it is not providing these fancy features.
Monkey Server:
Monkey Server is also an essential open-source website server for the users to host websites. This server is providing embedding features to the users. It means that you will have to compile the server yourself.
Therefore, you can create a lightweight and fast website server. This open-source website server is mainly available on Linux. Anyhow, you can also utilize it on the macOS.
It is providing the feature of basic authentication to the users. This basic authentication is available with full security rules. The minimal runtime of this open-source website server is 100KB.
This minimal runtime is available without plugins. If you want to host such a website that is targeted on specific devices, this is the best website server for you. Its reason is that you can ensure the best interface of the website by utilizing its embedded features.
Apache Tomcat:
It is written in JavaScript. Therefore, it is the best choice for those developers who are looking to utilize an open-source website server on JavaScript-based applications and websites.
Tomcat is not an ordinary open-source website server. Its reason is that it is providing a set of extended functions and features to the users. Its main focus is on providing the JSP functionality to the users.
In the Apache HTTP, we can’t see this functionality. As Apache HTTP focuses on PHP, therefore, we can also utilize Apache Tomcat along with Apache HTTP. You can use these two open-source website servers to handle the PHP and Java projects.
If we compare the efficiency of this web server with Apache HTTP and Nginx, we know that these web servers are not as efficient as Apache and Nginx. Anyhow, it is still providing the best functionalities to the users.
Along with these open-source website servers, you can also utilize the OpenLiteSpeed web server. It is the best server to provide simple and secure options to users. Its options are simple and you can optimize them easily. By optimizing it, you can create a user-friendly resource.
