Comparison of web server software
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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 | 2.4.65 | 2025-07-23 |
| Apache Tomcat | Apache Software Foundation | Apache | 11.0.14 | 2025-11-05 |
| 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 | 1.36.1 | 2023-05-18 |
| Caddy | Matt Holt | Apache | 2.11.2 | 2026-03-06 |
| 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 | 11.8 | 2025-09-21 |
| 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 | 1.4.82 | 2025-09-12 |
| LiteSpeed Web Server | LiteSpeed Technologies | GNU GPLv3 / proprietary license | 6.1.2 | 2023-05-24 |
| Mongoose | Cesanta Software | GNU GPLv2 / proprietary license | 7.21 | 2026-04-01 |
| 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 | 1.30.0 | 2026-04-14 |
| 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) | 2021-02-?? |
| 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) | 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 |
| Tengine | Taobao (Alibaba Group) | BSD | 3.1.0 | 2023-10-27 |
| 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) |
| 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 | 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 | Yes | Yes | No | Unknown | No | No | Yes | Unknown | Unknown | user | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| Apache HTTP Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Unknown | user | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Apache Tomcat | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Unknown | No | Yes | Yes | No | Unknown | user | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unknown | Unknown |
| Boa | No | No | Yes | 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 | No | No | user | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Caddy | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | user | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Caucho Resin Server | Yes | Yes | paid version | 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 | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| Cherokee HTTP Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Unknown | user | Yes | Yes | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| HFS | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Unknown | No | No | No | Unknown | Unknown | user | Unknown | No | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| Hiawatha HTTP Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | Unknown | user | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| 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 | Yes | Yes | Yes | kernel and user | 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 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | user | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| LiteSpeed Web Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Unknown | user | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 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 | 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 | 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 | Yes | No | Unknown | user | No | Yes | Yes | 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 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unknown | No | No | Yes | No | Unknown | user | Yes | 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 |
| 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 | Yes | Yes | Unknown | user | Yes | No | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
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 | Yes | Yes | Unknown | No | No | Unknown | No | Unknown | Unknown |
| BusyBox httpd | No | 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 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Unknown | Unknown |
| Cherokee HTTP Server | No | 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 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 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 |
| 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
External links
- 2010-05-20 at the Wayback Machine