Top 5 Lightweight Open Source Web Servers ~ DepoTech

Apache is no doubt the best web server for Linux but, here are five great alternatives for Apache.

Linux users have been using Apache server for their work for years now. Apache is great and known for its power, reliability and security.

Linux users have been using Apache server for their work for years now. Apache is great and known for its power, reliability and security. There are certain features of Apache that are not very easy to manage. There are plenty of other open source alternatives that can be used instead of Apache. Here are five small footprint Linux based web servers for you.

1. Nginx:

Nginx follows the scalable, event-driven architecture that is incredibly lightweight that can handle simple load balancing, fault tolerance, auto-indexing, virtual servers, mod_rewrite, access control and much more in an efficient way. Nginx can also be used as reverse proxy and IMAP/POP3 proxy server. The server is used by popular websites and services such as Netflix, Hulu, Pinterest, AirBnB and Wordpress. This lightweight webserver doesn’t perform like typical lightweight servers nor, it runs with minimal resources. Nginx offers optimal modules and addons. It also comes with pre-built packages for Linux for easy installation. Nginx is just 30 MB in size and it can give up to 35 per cent performance increase.

2. Lighttpd:

Lighttpd is perfect server for the machines that very often suffer from load problems. The web server is ideal solution for embedded systems. Many Raspberry Pi users prefer Lighttpd. It offers great functionality for cpu load, FastCGI, SCGI, Auth, Output-Compression, URL-Rewriting and much more. You will never feel like you are running the massive website with lightweight server. It can handle ten thousands clients simultaneously without any system failure. You can easily configure Lighted to to support PHP with opcode caches. If you are creating embedded system with less resources, Lighttpd is the best solution for you. The tool can handle web components in the best way. The configuration of Lighttpd is saved in single .conf file.

3. Monkey:

Monkey follows traditional approach of lightweight server. It is just another HTTP Daemon that offers support for virtual hosts, indented configuration, plugin support, C API interface and HTTP/1.1. The event driven server is great for stand-alone static content. Scripting languages have mad it easier to deliver content using FastCGI interface. This webserver also provides C framework called Duda I/O. Monkey is just 100 KB in size, it supports ARM, x86 and x64 system architecture. Monkey is the most simple to install and setup server for embedded devices. It is hard to beat in terms of ease of usage and static content performance.

4. Cherokee:

This is another user-friendly, lightweight web server that comes with number of modern features. Cherokee supports FastCGI, SCGI, PHP, uWSGI, SSI, CGI, LDAP, TLS/SSL, HTTP Proxying, video streaming, content caching, traffic shaping and much more features out of the box. The only downside of Cherokee is that, it hasn't received any update in recent time. It still runs on the framework that was released in October 2011. If you are looking for easy to setup server that is cross platform, Cherokee is the best option for you.

5. Hiawatha:

Hiawatha is a lightweight, open source web server with great security features. It is not designed for the embedded systems but, it is known for its fully functioning dynamic web server. Hiawatha is known for its security features. It can stop SQL injections, XSS, CSRF attacks, control external image linking and even ban potential hackers. It has built-in monitoring system that keeps track of all of your web servers. It is an ideal web server for embedded systems that require added security. If you are looking for secure robust web server for your standard or embedded system, Hiawatha is the best option for you.