Web server examples: The top 5 servers

November 10, 2019 / Other tutorials / 2 min

Most of the internet is based on web server software. Basically, a web server retrieves content from local storage and delivers it to the client. In this article, we will show some web server examples.

Apache Web Server

Apache is currently the most used web server in the world. Founded in 1996, it’s now maintained by the Apache Foundation. It’s freeware, and compatible with Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, Mac and several other platforms.

Copahost uses Apache on almost all of its web hosting servers.

IIS

Also one of the most popular web server examples. IIS belongs to Microsoft. IIS stands for Microsoft Internet Information Services. It comes with the Windows Server operating system. It’s configurable through a graphical interface.

NGINX

It’s one of the most popular web server software. NGINX was developed by Igor Sysoev in 2002. Also, it is not a standalone web server example. NGINX is a different example because it works as a proxy server, together with another web server application like Apache.

It was developed to handle hundreds of concurrent connections, delivering better performance. Meant to be a load-balanced web server for heavy applications. Also, it claims to be responsible for 66% of the busiest sites.

Apache Tomcat

Tomcat is a free web server, specialized in Java Servlets. In other words, it’s a Java container. Apache Tomcat was initially developed by Sun Microsystems, and then it was transferred to the Apache Software Foundation in 1999. By the way, Tomcat usually works under port 8080 and supports PHP, ASP.net, Perl, Python, etc.

Lighthttpd

Lighthttpd was initially developed in 2003. Basically, it’s not a very common web server software example for public web sites on the internet. It has a big advantage: as the name says, it’s the lighter HTTP server available. It uses a very low memory, CPU and disk space.

Internet routers, web cameras, and other small hardware use Lighthttpd as their web server.

Conclusion about web server examples

There are many web servers available. Basically, IIS is one of the few paid software. Web server prices may vary. Apache is the most used web server, and it’s the one preferred by Copahost to host its customers. Large web sites with too much traffic generally use NGINX.

Apache Tomcat had more market in the past, as Java Containers are not very used nowadays. And Lighthttpd is a great software to be used as a local web server, or for small web hosting projects.

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