Best web server linux

The 8 Best Open Source Web Servers

It’s been a long journey since the first web server was released back in 1991. For quite a long time, Apache was the only mention-worthy webserver. Over time, however, other open-source web servers have gained traction.

In this guide, we look at some of the best opensource web servers.

1. Apache HTTP Server

Apache HTTP Server, colloquially known as Apache or httpd in Red Hat distributions is a free and opensource web server developed by Apache Software Foundation under Apache License version 2. Released in 1995, Apache has grown in leaps and bounds to become one of the most popular and widely used web servers, powering over 37% of all the websites.

Apache is written in C language and is a highly customizable webserver thanks to its tons of modules that extend the web server’s functionality. These include mod_file_cache for caching, mod_ftp to provide FTP support for file uploads and downloads, and mod_ssl that allows support for SSL / TLS encryption protocols, and many more.

Additionally, given its rich set of modules, Apache provides multi-protocol support such as both IPv4 and IPv6 support and the commonly used HTTP, HTTP/2, and HTTPS protocols.

Apache also offers virtual hosting support that allows you to host multiple domains or websites. Be configuring virtual hosts, a single server can host multiple domains with ease and without any complexities. You can have example.com, example.edu, example.info and so on.

Check Apache Webpage

Learn how to install the Apache webserver on Linux distributions using the following guides.

2. Nginx Web Server

Pronounced as Engine-X, Nginx is an opensource high-performance robust web server which also double-ups as a load balancer, reverse proxy, IMAP/POP3 proxy server, and API gateway. Initially developed by Igor Sysoev in 2004, Nginx has grown in popularity to edge out rivals and become one of the most stable and reliable web servers.

Nginx draws its prominence from its low resource utilization, scalability, and high concurrency. In fact, when properly tweaked, Nginx can handle up to 500,000 requests per second with low CPU utilization. For this reason, it’s the most ideal web server for hosting high-traffic websites and beats Apache hands down.

Popular sites running on Nginx include LinkedIn, Adobe, Xerox, Facebook, and Twitter to mention a few.

Nginx is lean on configurations making it easy to make tweaks and Just like Apache, it supports multiple protocols, SSL/TLS support, basic HTTP authentication, virtual hosting, load balancing, and URL rewriting to mention a few. Currently, Nginx commands a market share of 31% of all the websites hosted.

Check Nginx Web Page

Learn how to install the Nginx web server on Linux distributions using the following guides.

3. Lighttpd Web Server

Lighttpd is a free and opensource web server that is specifically designed for speed-critical applications. Unlike Apache and Nginx, it has a very small footprint (less than 1 MB) and is very economical with the server’s resources such as CPU utilization.

Distributed under the BSD license, Lighttpd runs natively on Linux/Unix systems but can also be installed in Microsoft Windows. It’s popular for its simplicity, easy set-up, performance, and module support.

Lighttpd’s architecture is optimized to handle a large volume of parallel connections which is crucial for high-performance web applications. The web server supports FastCGI, CGI, and SCGI for interfacing programs with the webserver. It also supports web applications written in a myriad of programming languages with special attention given to PHP, Python, Perl, and Ruby.

Other features include SSL/TLS support, HTTP compression using the mod_compress module, virtual hosting, and support for various modules.

Check Lighttpd Page

Learn how to install the Lighttpd web server on Linux distributions using the following guides.

4. Apache Tomcat

Apache Tomcat is an opensource implementation of Java servlet engine, Java Expression Language and Java Server web pages. It comes across as an ideal option for developers who are building and deploying Java-based applications.

Strictly speaking, Tomcat is not your ordinary web server like Nginx or Apache. It’s a Java servlet that comes with extended functionality for interacting with Java servlets while at the same time implementing technical specifications such as JavaServer Pages (JSP), and Java Expression Language (Java EL).

What sets Tomcat apart from other web servers it that it’s geared specifically to serve Java-based content. It was originally developed to provide JSP functionality which lacked in the Apache HTTP server.

You can run Apache Tomcat alongside Apache HTTP server in a scenario where you are handling projects with both PHP and Java content. Apache HTTP server can handle static & dynamic content as Tomcat handles the JSP functionality.

On its own, however, Apache Tomcat is not a fully-fledged webserver and not as efficient as traditional web servers like Nginx and Apache.

Apache Tomcat Dashboard

Learn how to install the Apache Tomcat on Linux distributions using the following guides.

5. Caddy Web Server

Written in Go, Caddy is a fast and powerful multiplatform web server that can also act as a reverse proxy, load balancer, and API gateway. Everything is built-in with no dependencies and this aspect makes Caddy easy to install and use.

By default, Caddy supports HTTPS and easily takes care of SSL/TLS certificate renewals. Lack of dependencies increases its portability across various distributions without any conflict in the libraries.

It’s an ideal web server for running applications written in GO and offers full support for IPv6 and HTTP/2 to enable fast HTTP requests. It also supports virtual hosting, advanced WebSockets technology, URL rewrites, and redirects, caching and static file serving with compression, and markdown rendering.

Caddy has a very small market share and according to W3techs, it accounts for only 0.05% of the market share.

Caddy Web Server

Learn how to install the Caddy web server on Linux distributions using the following guides.

6. OpenLiteSpeed Web Server

OpenLiteSpeed is an open-source web server designed for speed, simplicity, security, and optimization. It’s based on the LiteSpeed Enterprise Web server edition and provides all the essential features in the Enterprise edition.

OpenLiteSpeed Admin Interface

OpenLiteSpeed web server rides on an event-driven, resource-friendly architecture and features a user-friendly WebAdmin GUI that helps you manage your domains/websites and monitor an array of metrics. It’s optimized to execute a wide spectrum of scripts such as Perl, Python, Ruby, and Java. OPenLiteSpeed supports both IPv4 and IPv6 with SSL/TLS support. IT provides support for TLS 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3.

You also get to enjoy bandwidth throttling, intelligent-cache acceleration, HTTP request validation, and IP-based access control. Additionally, you will benefit from high-performance page caching, and the web server’s ability to handle thousands of concurrent connections.

Apart from acting as a web server, OpenLiteSpeed can serve a load balancer and reverse proxy. It’s free to download and is available under the GPLv3 license.

Learn how to install the OpenLiteSpeed web server on Linux distributions using the following guides.

7. Hiawatha Web Server

Written in C, Hiawatha is a lightweight and secure web server built for speed, security, and ease of use. It’s code and features are highly secure and can ward off XSS and SQL injection attacks. Hiawatha also allows you to monitor your server using a special monitoring tool.

Hiawatha Web Server

It’s also easy to install and comes with ample documentation to guide you through and give you all the information that you need. Hiawatha comes recommended for embedded systems or old servers that have low specifications.

8. NodeJS

This might come as a shocker. Yes, NodeJS is primarily an opensource and cross-platform server-side runtime environment used for building web applications in Javascript. However, it’s also bundled with an http module that provides a set of classes and functions that extend its functionality and enables it to play the role of a web server.

Access Nodejs App from Browser

Learn how to install the NodeJS on Linux distributions using the following guides.

Conclusion

While we have covered some of the best opensource web servers, the list is by no means cast in stone. If you feel we have left one a web server that should be featured in this list, give us a shout out.

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10 Best Linux Server Distributions of 2020

Linux is free and open-source, this has emanated into the low total cost of ownership of a Linux system, compared to other operating systems. Although Linux operating systems (distributions) are not entirely doing well on desktop computers, they are commanding the stats when it comes to powering servers, mainframe computers as well as supercomputers in data centers around the world.

There are several factors attributed to this: the first and most important that you might have thought of, is the general freedom associated with it, stability, and security among others.

In this article, we will list the top 10 Linux server distributions of 2020 based on the following considerations: data center capabilities and reliability in relation to supported functionalities and hardware, ease of installation and use, cost of ownership in terms of licensing and maintenance, and accessibility of commercial support.

1. Ubuntu

Top on the list is Ubuntu, an open-source Debian-based Linux operating system, developed by Canonical. It is, without a doubt, the most popular Linux distribution out there, and many other distributions have been derived from it. Ubuntu server is efficient for building top-performance, highly scalable, flexible, and secure enterprise data centers.

Ubuntu Distribution

It offers remarkable support for big data, visualization, and containers, IoT (Internet Of Things); you can use it from most if not all common public clouds. Ubuntu server can run on x86, ARM, and Power architectures.

With the Ubuntu Advantage, you can get commercial support and services such as a systems management tool for security audit, compliance, and the Canonical livepatch service, that helps you to apply kernel fixes and many more. This is coupled with support from a robust and growing community of developers and users.

2. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Second on the log is Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), an open-source Linux distribution developed by Red Hat, for commercial use. It is based on Fedora, which is a community-driven project: a great deal of software that is available on RHEL is first developed and tested on Fedora.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

RHEL server is a powerful, stable, and secure software for powering modern data centers with software-oriented storage. It has amazing support for cloud, IoT, big data, visualization, and containers.

RHEL server supports 64-bit ARM, Power and IBM System z machines. The Red Hat subscription enables you to get the latest enterprise-ready software, trusted knowledge, product security, and technical support from engineers.

3. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is an open-source, stable, and secure server platform built by SUSE. It is developed to power physical, virtual and cloud-based servers. It is well suited for cloud solutions with support for visualization and containers.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

It runs on the modern hardware environments for ARM System on Chip, Intel, AMD, SAP HANA, z Systems, and NVM Express over Fabrics. Users can get technical support and services under various categories including priority support, dedicated engineer among others, with SUSE Subscription.

4. CentOS (Community OS) Linux Server

CentOS is a stable and open source derivative of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It is an all-round community-supported distribution and is therefore operationally compatible with RHEL. If you want the use of RHEL without paying a considerable amount of money via subscription, then you have to use CentOS.

CentOS Linux

Since it is free software, you can get support from other community members, users and online resources as well.

5. Debian

Debian is a free, open-source and stable Linux distribution maintained by its users. It ships in with over 51000 packages and uses a powerful packaging system. It is being used by educational institutions, business companies, non-profit and government organizations.

Debian Linux

It generally supports a larger number of computer architectures including 64-bit PC (amd64), 32-bit PC (i386), IBM System z, 64-bit ARM (Aarch64), POWER Processors and many more.

It has a bug tracking system and you can get support for Debian by reading through its documentation and free web resources.

6. Oracle Linux

Oracle Linux is a free and open-source Linux distribution packaged and distributed by Oracle, intended for the open cloud. It’s remarkably engineered for small, medium to large enterprise, cloud-enabled data centers. It offers tools for building scalable and reliable big data systems and virtual environments.

Oracle Linux

It runs on all x86-based Oracle engineered systems and the Oracle Linux Support program enables you to get top-rated support with premier backports, extensive management, cluster applications, indemnification, testing tools, and plus so much more, at a reasonably lower cost.

7. Mageia

Mageia (a fork of Mandriva) is a free, stable, secure Linux operating system that is developed by a community. It provides an enormous repository of software including integrated system configuration tools. Importantly, it was the first Linux distribution to replace Oracle’s MySQL with MariaDB.

Mageia Linux

In case you need any support, you can contact the Mageia community which is made up of users, makers, and advocates.

8. ClearOS

ClearOS is an open-source Linux distribution derived from RHEL/CentOS, built by ClearFoundation and marketed by ClearCenter. It is a commercial distribution intended for small and medium enterprises as a network gateway and network server, with an easy-to-use web-based administration interface.

ClearOS Linux

It is a smart, full-featured server software which is highly flexible and customizable. You receive premium support at an affordable cost and get additional software from the application marketplace.

9. Arch Linux

Arch Linux is also a free and open-source, simple, lightweight yet secure Linux distribution. It is flexible and stable; provides the latest stable versions of most software by following a rolling-release pattern and uses both official package and community-supported package repositories.

Arch Linux

Arch Linux is a general-purpose distribution that is optimized for the i686 and x86-64 architectures. However, because of decreasing popularity among the developers and other community members, support for i686 has now been dropped.

It has a formal bug tracking facility and you can get supports from a thriving community and other online resources.

10. Slackware Linux

Last on the list is Slackware, a free and open-source, powerful Linux distribution that strives to be most “Unix-like” in design simplicity and stability as well. It was created by Patrick Volkerding in 1993 and is best suited for Linux users who aim at technical proficiency.

Slackware Linux

It doesn’t offer a graphical installation method, has no auto-dependency resolution of software packages. Additionally, Slackware uses plain text files and a number of shell scripts for configuration and administration. And has no formal bug tracking service or public code repository.

It has a wide range of development tools, editors, and current libraries for users who want to develop or compile supplementary software on their servers. It can run on Pentium systems and the latest x86 and x86_64 machines.

Slackware has no official support term policy, however, you can find help from comprehensive online documentation and other related resources.

That’s it! In this article, we have listed the top 10 Linux server distributions of 2020. Which distribution are you or your company using to power servers out there? Let us know via the comment section below.

If You Appreciate What We Do Here On TecMint, You Should Consider:

TecMint is the fastest growing and most trusted community site for any kind of Linux Articles, Guides and Books on the web. Millions of people visit TecMint! to search or browse the thousands of published articles available FREELY to all.

If you like what you are reading, please consider buying us a coffee ( or 2 ) as a token of appreciation.

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