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 (discontinued) Apache HTTP Server Apache Software Foundation Apache Tomcat Apache Software Foundation Boa Jon Nelson and Larry Doolittle (discontinued) BusyBox httpd Glenn Engel, Vladimir Oleynik, BusyBox Team Caddy Matt Holt Caudium The Caudium Group CERN httpdCERN, W3C, Tim Berners-Lee, Ari Luotonen and Henrik Frystyk NielsenMIT Copyright Statement with acknowledgement to CERN (discontinued) Cherokee HTTP Server Álvaro López Ortega GlassFish Sun Microsystems, Oracle Corporation, since 2019 Eclipse Foundation Hiawatha Hugo Leisink HFS Rejetto IBM HTTP Server IBM proprietary 9.0.5.17 Internet Information Services Microsoft proprietary Jetty Eclipse Foundation Jexus Bing Liu proprietary 6.2.x lighttpd Jan Kneschke (Incremental) LiteSpeed Web Server LiteSpeed Technologies Mongoose Cesanta Software Monkey HTTP Server Monkey Software NaviServer Various NCSA HTTPd Robert McCool proprietary (discontinued) nginx NGINX, Inc. OpenBSD httpd Reyk Floeter OpenLink Virtuoso OpenLink Software Oracle HTTP Server Oracle Corporation proprietary 14c (14.1.2.0.0) Oracle iPlanet Web Server Oracle Corporation 7.0.27 Oracle WebLogic Server Oracle Corporation(formerly BEA Systems) proprietary 15c (15.1.1.0.0) Resin Open Source Caucho Technology Resin Professional Caucho Technology proprietary TengineTaobao (Alibaba Group) thttpd Jef Poskanzer for ACME Laboratories TUX web server Ingo Molnár 3.2.6.18 (discontinued) WEBrick Ruby Community Xitami iMatix Corporation (discontinued) Yaws Claes Wikström Zeus Web Server Zeus Technology proprietary 4.3r5 (discontinued) Zope Zope Corporation Server Developed by Software license Last stable version Latest release date
Features Some features may be intentionally not included in a 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 an http daemon. NGINX and OpenBSD httpd authors decided not to include CGI interpretation, instead using FastCGI. For OpenBSD, a slowcgi gateway was developed. BusyBox httpd doesn't have automatically generated directory listing but it may be implemented as a CGI script.
Server Security Virtualhosting Dynamic content Runs in useror kernel space Administration console Additional protocol support Basic accessauthenti-cation Digest accessauthenti-cation SSL/TLShttps CGI FCGI SCGI WSGI JavaServlets SSI ISAPI SSJS IPv6 HTTP/2 QUIC HTTP/3 AOLserver user Apache HTTP Server user Apache Tomcat user Boa user BusyBox httpd user Caddy user Caucho Resin Server user Caudium user Cherokee HTTP Server user HFS user Hiawatha HTTP Server user IBM HTTP Server user Internet Information Services kernel and user Jetty user Jexus user lighttpd user LiteSpeed Web Server user Mongoose user Monkey HTTP Server user NaviServer user NCSA HTTPd user nginx (module) user OpenBSD httpd user OpenLink Virtuoso user Oracle HTTP Server user Oracle iPlanet Web Server user thttpd user TUX web server kernel Xitami user Yaws user Zeus Web Server user
Operating system support Server Windows Linux macOS BSD Solaris eComStation OpenVMS AIX IBM i z/OS HP-UX AOLserver Apache HTTP Server Apache Tomcat Boa BusyBox httpd "The Windows native build is currently broken." Caddy Caucho Resin Server Caudium Cherokee HTTP Server "The Windows native build is currently broken." HFS Hiawatha IBM HTTP Server Internet Information Services Jetty Jexus lighttpd LiteSpeed Web Server Mongoose Monkey HTTP Server NaviServer NCSA HTTPd nginx OpenLink Virtuoso Oracle HTTP Server Oracle iPlanet Web Server thttpd (Cygwin) TUX web server Xitami Yaws
See also Comparison of application servers Embedded HTTP server Gunicorn (HTTP server) Helicon Ape
References
External links Netcraft Web Server Survey Usage Statistics and Market Share of Web Servers for Websites