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Comparison of web server software

Topic: Software

 From HandWiki - Reading time: 8 min
Short description: None

Web server software allows computers to act as web servers. The first web servers supported only static files, such as HTML (and images), but now they commonly allow embedding of server side applications.

Some web application frameworks include simple HTTP servers. For example the Django framework provides runserver, and PHP has a built-in server. These are generally intended only for use during initial development. A production server will require a more robust HTTP front-end such as one of the servers listed here.

Overview

Server Developed by Software license Last stable version Latest release date
AOLserver NaviSoft Mozilla 4.5.2 2012-09-19 (discontinued)
Apache HTTP Server Apache Software Foundation Apache 2.4.57 2023-04-07
Apache Tomcat Apache Software Foundation Apache 10.1.15 2023-10-16
Boa Jon Nelson and Larry Doolittle GNU GPL 0.94.13 2002-07-30 (discontinued)
BusyBox httpd Glenn Engel, Vladimir Oleynik, BusyBox Team GNU GPL 1.34.0 2020-08-19
Caddy Matt Holt Apache 2.6.4 2023-02-14
Caudium The Caudium Group GNU GPL 1.4.18 2012-02-24
CERN httpd CERN, W3C, Tim Berners-Lee, Ari Luotonen and Henrik Frystyk Nielsen MIT Copyright Statement with acknowledgement to CERN 3.0A 1996-07-15

(discontinued)

Cherokee HTTP Server Álvaro López Ortega GNU GPL 1.2.103 2013-04-21
GlassFish Sun Microsystems, Oracle Corporation, since 2019 Eclipse Foundation Eclipse Public License & GNU General Public License 6.2.5 2022-02-13
Hiawatha Hugo Leisink GNU GPLv2 11.5 2023-10-13
HFS Rejetto GNU GPL 2.3m 2018-08-16
IBM HTTP Server IBM Non-free proprietary 9.0.5.17 2023-09-19
Internet Information Services Microsoft Non-free proprietary 10.0.17763.1 2018-10-02
Jetty Eclipse Foundation Apache 12.0.2 2023-10-10
Jexus Bing Liu Non-free proprietary 6.2.x 2020
lighttpd Jan Kneschke (Incremental) BSD variant 1.4.73 2023-10-03
LiteSpeed Web Server LiteSpeed Technologies GNU GPLv3 / proprietary license 6.1.2 2023-05-24
Mongoose Cesanta Software GNU GPLv2 / proprietary license 7.12 2023-10-12
Monkey HTTP Server Monkey Software Apache 1.6.9 2016-06-04
NaviServer Various Mozilla 1.1 4.99.25 2023-05-01
NCSA HTTPd Robert McCool Non-free proprietary 1.5.2a 1996-10-08 (discontinued)
Nginx NGINX, Inc. BSD variant 1.25.2 2023-08-15
OpenBSD httpd Reyk Floeter ISC 7.4 2023-10-16
OpenLink Virtuoso OpenLink Software GNU GPL and proprietary versions 8.3.3329 2023-09-01
Oracle HTTP Server Oracle Corporation Non-free proprietary 12cR2 (12.2.1.4)[1] 2021-02-??[2]
Oracle iPlanet Web Server Oracle Corporation BSD 7.0.27 2017-10-01
Oracle WebLogic Server Oracle Corporation
(formerly BEA Systems) 		Non-free proprietary 14c (14.1.1.0) [1] 2020-03-30
Resin Open Source Caucho Technology GNU GPLv3 / proprietary license 4.0.66 2021-12-08
Resin Professional Caucho Technology Non-free proprietary 4.0.66 2021-12-08
thttpd Jef Poskanzer for ACME Laboratories BSD variant 2.29 2018-05-24
TUX web server Ingo Molnár GNU GPL 3.2.6.18 2006-09-20 (discontinued)
Wakanda Server Wakanda GNU AGPLv3 / proprietary license 2.7.0 2019-04-29 (Discontinued)
WEBrick Ruby Community BSD 2-clause 1.8.1 2023-01-27
Xitami iMatix Corporation BSD 5.0a0 2009-02-19 (discontinued)
Yaws Claes Wikström BSD 3 clause 2.1.1 2022-02-02
Zeus Web Server Zeus Technology Non-free proprietary 4.3r5 2010-01-13 (discontinued)
Zope Zope Corporation Zope 2.13.30 2020-02-14
Server Developed by Software license Last stable version Latest release date

Features

Some features may be intentionally not included to web server to avoid featuritis. For example:

  • TLS/HTTPS may be enabled with a separate stunnel daemon that terminates TLS and redirects raw HTTP packets to http daemon.
  • NGINX and OpenBSD httpd authors decided not to include CGI interpretation but instead use FastCGI. For OpenBSD was developed a slowcgi gateway.
  • BusyBox httpd doesn't have automatically generated directory listing but it may be implemented as a CGI script
Server Security Virtual
hosting 		Dynamic content[lower-alpha 1] Runs in user
or kernel space 		Administration console Additional protocol support
Basic access
authenti-
cation 		Digest access
authenti-
cation 		SSL/TLS
https 		CGI FCGI SCGI WSGI Java
Servlets 		SSI ISAPI SSJS IPv6 HTTP/2 QUIC HTTP/3
AOLserver Yes No Yes[lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 3][lower-alpha 4][3] Yes Yes No Unknown No No Yes Unknown Unknown user Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Apache HTTP Server Yes Yes Yes[lower-alpha 5][lower-alpha 3][4][lower-alpha 6][5] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[lower-alpha 5] No[lower-alpha 7] Yes Yes[lower-alpha 8] Unknown user Yes[lower-alpha 9] Yes Yes No No
Apache Tomcat Yes Yes Yes[lower-alpha 10][6] Yes Yes No Unknown No Yes Yes No[lower-alpha 11] Unknown user Yes Yes[lower-alpha 12] Yes Unknown Unknown
Boa No No Yes[lower-alpha 13] Yes Yes No Unknown No No No No No user Unknown Yes No No No
BusyBox httpd Yes No No No Yes No No No No No[lower-alpha 14] No No user No Yes No No No
Caddy Yes No Yes Yes Partial[lower-alpha 15] Yes No No No No[lower-alpha 16] No No user No Yes Yes Yes Yes[lower-alpha 17]
Caucho Resin Server Yes Yes paid version[lower-alpha 3] Yes Yes Yes Unknown No Yes Yes No Unknown user Yes Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
Caudium Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown No Yes Yes Unknown Unknown user Yes Yes[lower-alpha 18] Unknown Unknown Unknown
Cherokee HTTP Server Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Unknown user Yes Yes[8] Unknown Unknown Unknown
HFS Yes No No[9] No No No Unknown No No No Unknown Unknown user Unknown No Unknown Unknown Unknown
Hiawatha HTTP Server Yes Yes Yes[lower-alpha 19][10] Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No Unknown user Yes Yes No[11] No[11] No[11]
IBM HTTP Server Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown No No Yes No Unknown user Yes Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
Internet Information Services Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No[lower-alpha 20] Yes Yes Yes kernel and user[12] Yes Yes Yes Unknown Unknown
Jetty Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown Unknown No Yes Unknown Unknown Yes user Unknown Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown
Jexus No No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No Yes user Yes No Unknown Unknown Unknown
lighttpd Yes Yes Yes[lower-alpha 3][13] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No[lower-alpha 7] Yes No No user No Yes Yes No No
LiteSpeed Web Server Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown Yes No[lower-alpha 7] Yes No Unknown user Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[14]
Mongoose Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes No No user Yes Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
Monkey HTTP Server Yes No Yes[lower-alpha 19] Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No user No Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
NaviServer Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Unknown No No Yes Unknown Unknown user Yes Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
NCSA HTTPd Yes Yes Unknown Partial[lower-alpha 21] Yes Unknown Unknown No No Yes No No user No No No No No
nginx Yes Yes (module) Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No[15] Yes No Unknown user No Yes[16] Yes[17] Yes Yes
OpenBSD httpd Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No user No Yes No No No
OpenLink Virtuoso Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes No No user Yes No No Unknown Unknown
Oracle HTTP Server[18] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown No No Yes No Unknown user Yes[lower-alpha 22] Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
Oracle iPlanet Web Server Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown No Yes Yes No Yes user Yes Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
thttpd Yes Unknown No Yes Yes No Unknown No No No No Unknown user No Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
TUX web server No No No Yes Yes No Unknown No No No No Unknown kernel Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Wakanda Server Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No Yes user Yes Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
Xitami Yes Unknown paid version Yes Yes Unknown Unknown No Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown user Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Yaws Yes Unknown Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown No No Yes No Unknown user Unknown Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
Zeus Web Server Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown No No[lower-alpha 7] Yes Yes Unknown user Yes No Unknown Unknown Unknown
  1. ↑ The "dynamic content" columns indicate whether the server itself implements the given feature. Other features may be available by delegation (e.g. Apache HTTP Server can delegate to Apache Tomcat for Servlet support).
  2. ↑ support for using RSA BSAFE
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 support for using openSSL
  4. ↑ support for using Network Security Services
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 via modules
  6. ↑ support for using GnuTLS
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 This server implements AJP; compatible third-party Servlet containers can be integrated to provide seamless Servlet support.
  8. ↑ This server can use the mod_isapi module for this support.
  9. ↑ via Geronimo
  10. ↑ support for using Java Secure Socket Extension
  11. ↑ While Tomcat does not implement ISAPI directly, it integrates well with Apache mod_jk which contains an ISAPI module for this purpose.
  12. ↑ Requires a JVM and OS that support IPv6.
  13. ↑ with external patch
  14. ↑ Implemented as CGI script httpd_ssi
  15. ↑ CGI implemented for WebSocket connections
  16. ↑ Same capabilities as SSI available with templates
  17. ↑ The experimental_http3 option "enables experimental draft HTTP/3 support...This option will go away in the future".[7]
  18. ↑ Version 1.4.8 of Caudium mentions IPv6 support but this is not explicitly specified on the official website. Maintainers have been sent a Documentation Update Query; please remove this warning notice when they update their website
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 support for using PolarSSL
  20. ↑ Servlet Engines are supported via isapi_redirect.
  21. ↑ Due to lack of support for HTTP/1.1, name based virtual hosts are not fully implemented.
  22. ↑ via Enterprise Manager

Operating system support

Server Windows Linux macOS BSD Solaris eComStation OpenVMS AIX IBM i z/OS HP-UX
AOLserver No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Unknown No Unknown Unknown
Apache HTTP Server Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Apache Tomcat Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Boa Unknown Yes No Yes Unknown No No Unknown No Unknown Unknown
BusyBox httpd No[19] Yes Unknown Yes No No No No No No No
Caddy Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Caucho Resin Server Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Caudium[20] No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No Unknown Unknown
Cherokee HTTP Server No[21] Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Unknown No Unknown Unknown
HFS Yes No No No No No No No No No No
Hiawatha with Cygwin[22] Yes[22] Yes[22] Yes[22] Yes[22] No No No No No No
IBM HTTP Server Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Internet Information Services Yes No No No No No No No No No No
Jetty (Java) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Unknown No Yes Unknown
Jexus No Yes No Yes Unknown No No No No No No
lighttpd Yes
(Cygwin) 		Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes
LiteSpeed Web Server No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Unknown No Unknown Unknown
Mongoose Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Monkey HTTP Server No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No
NaviServer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown Unknown Yes No Unknown Unknown
NCSA HTTPd Unknown Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Unknown No Unknown Yes
nginx Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes
OpenLink Virtuoso Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes
Oracle HTTP Server Yes Yes No Unknown Yes No No Yes No Unknown Unknown
Oracle iPlanet Web Server Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes No No Yes
thttpd Yes
(Cygwin) 		Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Unknown No Unknown Unknown
TUX web server No Yes No No No No No No No No No
Wakanda Server Yes Yes
(via libbsd) 		Yes Yes Unknown No No No No No No
Xitami Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Unknown Yes
Yaws Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No Unknown Unknown

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Oracle Web Tier Downloads". Oracle. https://www.oracle.com/middleware/technologies/webtier-downloads.html#server3. 
  2. ↑ "Release Notes for Oracle HTTP Server" (in en-us). https://docs.oracle.com/en/middleware/fusion-middleware/web-tier/12.2.1.4/releasenotes-ohs/index.html. 
  3. ↑ "Nsssl - AOLserver Wiki". https://panoptic.com/wiki/aolserver/Nsssl. 
  4. ↑ "Apache Module mod_ssl". https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_ssl.html. 
  5. ↑ "mod_gnutls". https://mod.gnutls.org/. 
  6. ↑ "Apache Tomcat 6.0 - SSL Configuration HOW-TO". https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/ssl-howto.html. 
  7. ↑ "Global options". https://caddyserver.com/docs/caddyfile/options/. 
  8. ↑ Installation guide shows server status with "IPv6 enabled"
  9. ↑ HFS: Secure your server
  10. ↑ Leisink, Hugo. "Features - Hiawatha webserver". https://www.hiawatha-webserver.org/features. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "Scaling down the project". https://www.hiawatha-webserver.org/weblog/132. 
  12. ↑ "States that the HTTP protocol stack http.sys runs in kernel space, while the rest of the software runs in user space". Technet2.microsoft.com. http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/975bb1da-4bcf-4064-b0c7-723e45106bf51033.mspx?mfr=true. 
  13. ↑ "Secure HTTP". https://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/wiki/Docs_SSL. 
  14. ↑ ""LiteSpeed Web Server v5.4 is Here!"". 24 July 2019. https://blog.litespeedtech.com/2019/07/24/litespeed-web-server-v5-4-is-here/. 
  15. ↑ "JavaServers". Wiki.nginx.org. https://wiki.nginx.org/JavaServers. 
  16. ↑ Ghosh, Soumik (2010-09-05). "Enable IPv6 support". Nginx Library. https://nginxlibrary.com/enable-ipv6-support/. 
  17. ↑ "nginx changelog". 2015-09-22. https://nginx.org/en/CHANGES. 
  18. ↑ "Feature Overview - 10g R2 (10.1.2)". Oracle.com. 2010-09-07. https://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ias/ohs/htdocs/ohs-10.1.2.0.2-fov_0.pdf. 
  19. ↑ "BusyBox on Windows". https://frippery.org/busybox/.  "The Windows native build is currently broken."
  20. ↑ "Webserver FAQs". Caudium. http://caudium.net/server/faqs.rxml. 
  21. ↑ John Poole. "Installation on Windows". http://cherokee-project.com/doc/basics_installation_windows.html.  "The Windows native build is currently broken."
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 Hugo Leisink. "About - Hiawatha webserver". https://www.hiawatha-webserver.org/about. 

External links



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