LiteSpeed vs Apache vs Nginx Web Server: Which is Better?

When looking for hosting for your website, you need to consider not only the disk space, the type of hard drives (SSD, HDD, NVMe), the monthly transfer limit, or the number of databases, but also which web server will be handling your site. There are many different web servers on the market, but the three most popular—Apache, Nginx, and LiteSpeed—capture over 42% of the market share (August 2025). I am not including the Cloudflare server here, as it operates on a slightly different principle than these three. All of them are very stable, well-developed, and feature-rich; however, there are significant differences between them that will affect your website’s performance and ease of use.

What is a web server?

A web server is software that handles requests sent by visitors to a site and sends back a complete page for display in their web browsers. Every time you type a website address into your browser, you send a request to an HTTP/HTTPS server. This server either displays an HTML file in the case of static pages or dynamically generates a PHP page stored in a database, as is the case with sites built on WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal.

We will compare the three most popular web servers so you can choose the best solution for your website. For some time now, the most popular web server has been Nginx, which has surpassed Apache. In third place, and climbing rapidly, is LiteSpeed.

Web Servers: Top 10 Market Share – August 2025

Source: netcraft.com*Sites may use several web servers simultaneously, which is why the percentages do not add up to 100%.

Apache

Let’s start with Apache, as it is the oldest of the web servers presented here. This open-source server, created in 1995, was the undisputed leader in popularity for a long time. It practically dominated on Linux machines, and even on Windows computers, it was often chosen over the commercial IIS from Microsoft.

Nginx

Nginx was created to address the existing shortcomings of the Apache server and initially functioned only as a reverse proxy server and load balancer. It was later transformed into a fully-fledged web server. It is compatible with Apache, so existing sites can be easily transferred from Apache to Nginx.

LiteSpeed

LiteSpeed is the youngest web server of the three. Like Nginx, it is also fully compatible with Apache and supports .htaccess files, mod_rewrite, and mod_security.

Main Differences

Architecture

Apache Apache has a process-based architecture. Each HTTP request is handled by a separate process. All these processes are managed by a single main parent process. This is the main drawback of Apache. The problem with a process-based architecture is that it struggles significantly with RAM consumption. While this isn’t a major issue on low-traffic sites, it becomes noticeable on popular websites. Under heavy load, performance and page loading speed drop drastically.

Nginx The Nginx web server works completely differently. Its architecture is event-driven. There is one main process and several worker processes that manage all the traffic on the site. This architecture is much more efficient. With Nginx, there is no such drop in performance, even for heavily loaded websites.

LiteSpeed Similar to Nginx, LiteSpeed’s architecture is event-driven. Therefore, just as with Nginx, the drop in performance with an increasing number of visitors is much smaller than with Apache.

Speed

For low-traffic websites, the speed of all three web servers is at a similar level. But the more active users a site has, the more Apache starts to fall behind the other two. Admittedly, after installing W3 Total Cache on Apache, things improve slightly, but with 100 concurrent visitors, Nginx and LiteSpeed still outperform Apache by a significant margin.

Nginx with FastCGI Cache is much faster than Apache with W3 Total Cache, but it is LiteSpeed with the LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress plugin installed that shows the real advantage. For a WordPress-based site, the Apache server was able to handle 826.5 requests per second, Nginx handled 6,025 requests per second, while LiteSpeed handled a staggering 69,618 requests per second.

Web Server Speed Comparison

Test Environment

• Web Servers Tested:
  • LiteSpeed Web Server v5.4.1
  • Nginx v1.16.1
  • Apache v2.4.41
• WordPress:
  • WordPress version: 5.2.2
  • LiteSpeed cache: LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress
  • Nginx cache: FastCGI Cache
  • Apache cache: W3 Total Cache
• Client & Server Machine:
  • RAM: 1GB
  • Processors: 1
  • CPU Threads: 1
  • Processor Model: Virtual CPU 6db7dc0e7704
  • Disk: NVMe SSD
• Network:
  • Bandwidth: 9.02 Gbits/sec
  • Latency: 0.302 ms
• Cloud VM:
  • Vultr High Frequency Compute 1GB VM

Caching

The cache is used to temporarily store frequently used data. A web server’s cache stores frequently visited web pages and other resources. This reduces the server’s load, increases the site’s overall performance/throughput, and shortens page load times.

Apache

Apache has various caching modules, such as mod_cache, mod_cache_disk, mod_file_cache, and htcacheclean. You can implement them on your Apache server to improve the performance of frequently visited pages.

Nginx

You can enable caching on an Nginx server using cPanel or Plesk if you have them installed, or directly in the Nginx configuration files.

LiteSpeed

You can very easily enable the cache in LiteSpeed using plugins for:

• WordPress
• Magento
• Joomla
• PrestaShop
• OpenCart
• Drupal
• XenForo
• Laravel
• Shopware
• CS-Cart
• MediaWiki

The cache also offers several other unique features, such as the Cache Crawler. The Cache Crawler scans your website when it is not under load, identifies the most frequently visited pages, and moves them to the cache to speed up your site even further. LiteSpeed cache also improves the performance of online shops by caching customers’ shopping baskets.

Supported Operating Systems

Apache

As the oldest of the three web servers, Apache supports the most operating systems. It supports all Unix/Linux systems: CentOS, RedHat, Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, etc. It is the only one fully supported by Microsoft Windows systems.

Nginx

You can also install Nginx on all Unix/Linux systems; however, it does not run correctly on Windows systems.

LiteSpeed

You can install LiteSpeed on CentOS 7+, Ubuntu 14.04+, Debian 8+, FreeBSD 9+, Fedora 31+, and Linux Kernel 3.0+.

*As of January 2023, you can install LiteSpeed on Ubuntu 22.04; however, CyberPanel does not work on this version of the system. If you want to use CyberPanel with its convenient GUI, you should stay on Ubuntu 20.04.

Ease of Configuration

If you are just starting your journey with web servers, ease of use may be important to you. It is much more pleasant to manage a web server from a browser with a convenient graphical interface than by using the CLI or editing configuration files.

Apache

Apache is most commonly configured by editing the .htaccess file. This is where you set up redirects, password protection, custom error messages, indexing, and much more. However, editing this file requires some knowledge of web server configuration, without which you can easily make a mistake and completely disable your site. Therefore, always make a backup before editing this file.

Nginx

The Nginx server is configured using .conf configuration files. By default, Nginx does not have a control panel with a graphical interface, but you can install one of several available Control Panels. Some of them are free, like Hestia Control Panel, while others require payment.

LiteSpeed

The free OpenLiteSpeed installs by default with a Dashboard featuring a convenient, graphical user interface. Additionally, you can install one of several control panels, for example, the excellent and free CyberPanel, from which you can manage the entire server. You can install a new website, install WordPress with LiteSpeed Cache, install SSL certificates with a single click (both free via Let’s Encrypt and your own paid certificates), configure DNS, FTP, SSH, create backups, change the PHP version for each site separately, install a mail server, and much more.

Security

All three described web servers take security very seriously.

Apache additionally has a vigilant and the largest community of developers, which responds instantly to any detected security vulnerabilities. It also offers various configuration parameters to protect the site from DDoS attacks and privilege escalation, though implementing them requires a bit of IT knowledge.

With Nginx, in addition to the community, security is handled by F5, the company that acquired the rights to Nginx. It has extensive documentation on security and potential threats.

LiteSpeed is also very secure and is continuously and efficiently developed. Any detected security vulnerabilities are patched promptly.

Plugins

Plugins allow you to extend the capabilities of a web server.

Apache probably has the most extensive list of plugins, including those for managing SQL connections, data compression, or executing CGI scripts.

There are also many plugins for Nginx, which are written by the developer community. Thanks to them, you can, for example, manage HTTPS SSL authentication or dynamically block IP addresses.

In terms of the number of plugins, LiteSpeed may seem the weakest at first glance, but this is only apparent, as many things that you have to install separately in Apache or Nginx come as standard in LiteSpeed.

CMS Support

All three servers support Content Management Systems (CMS) without any issues, including:

• Joomla
• Drupal
• Magento
• OpenCart
• PrestaShop
• Shopware
• MediaWiki
• and others

Summary

Each web server has its advantages and disadvantages. However, LiteSpeed seems to be the most future-proof at present, although Nginx has not yet had its final say, especially as it is backed by the large American corporation, F5. Apache, on the other hand, has the largest community and is the best documented. However, we are of the opinion that once you try the convenient graphical user interface of CyberPanel and the LiteSpeed dashboard, you will not want to go back to Apache.