In this article, we will first discover what a Webserver is and then compare the two most famous among them.
A web server is a software (it could be hardware too) application that serves as an intercessor between clients (usually web browsers) and web apps. Its main function is to handle incoming requests for web resources (like HTML pages, images, etc.) and serve them to the requesting client. Web servers play a pivotal role in hosting websites and making them accessible over the Internet.
Apache is a free, open-source, and cross-platform (works on servers based on both Linux/Unix and Windows) web server software. It is maintained and developed by a community of developers under the Apache Software Foundation. Their goal is to create a robust, commercial-grade, featureful, and freely available source code implementation of an HTTP web server.
LiteSpeed is a commercial web-serving software developed by LiteSpeed Technologies. An open-source variant exists under the name of OpenLiteSpeed (or OLS or OLSWS) but with limited features.
LSWS is marketed as the fastest web server focusing on speed and efficiency. It aims to be a drop-in replacement for the Apache web server so that server admins can switch to it easily from Apace. It also can 'pick' Apache configuration and its modules. This eases in migration of virtual hosts from Apache to LSWS.
LSWS is often praised for its superior performance, efficiency, and outperforming Apache in different scenarios. It is also more efficient than Apache on server load, memory utilization, and other resources consumption
Currently, LiteSpeed Web Server is the only available production-grade web server with a reliable HTTP/3 implementation. For developers and agencies looking to be on the bleeding edge and serve their sites via HTTP/3, LiteSpeed is the only web server that can do it right now.
Similarly, they've been supporting HTTP/2 for as long as it's been available, and continue to make strides in efficiency and speed. In recent HTTP/2 benchmarks showing requests per second accessing WordPress, LiteSpeed's HTTP/2 implementation performed 10X faster than Nginx and 78X faster than Apache.
LiteSpeed Cache (LSCache) for WordPress is their popular WordPress cache plugin, with over a million active installations. It's an all-in-one acceleration plugin, with its signature feature powered by LiteSpeed Web Server's built-in server-level cache. This built-in cache simplifies the server stack and makes for a faster, more efficient way to serve content.
The LSCache plugin adds built-in PageSpeed optimization, image optimization service, critical CSS generation service, and third-party CDN integration, among other features. It also supports personalized WooCommerce cache as well as a highly configurable cache crawler, noticeably improving user experiences across all of your sites.
As far as community support is concerned, Apache has a large active open-source community in contrast with technical support provided by LiteSpeed Technologies.
LiteSpeed is a clear winner when comparing these two software web servers. LiteSpeed is kilometers ahead of Apache when it comes to the performance side and the implementation of HTTP/3. They continue to make improvements to HTTP/2, and are making WordPress run more efficiently. Web Design Labs offer wordpress hosting packages with LSWS and cloud linux OS support
However, still, the choice between Apache and LSWS may depend on factors such as performance requirements, one’s own budget, and the familiarity of the user with open-source solutions versus commercial ones. Both servers have their strengths, and the decision should align with the specific needs of the web hosting environment.
