LiteSpeed Web Server
LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS) is proprietary web server software. It is the 4th most popular web server, estimated to be used by 13.9% of websites as of September 2024. LSWS is developed by privately held LiteSpeed Technologies. The software uses the same configuration format as Apache HTTP Server and is compatible with most Apache features. An open source variant is also available. LSWS was released in 2003, and in August 2008 it became the 16th most popular web server. In November 2016, LiteSpeed's market share grew from 0.39% to 3.29%, increasing its position from 10th to 4th most popular web server according to Netcraft. In 2017, a team from Hong Kong Polytechnic University found it to be one of the six most popular web servers, and it was estimated by a team at RWTH Aachen University to be running 9.2% of all HTTP/2-enabled websites. As of September 2024, LSWS was used by 36.3% of websites using HTTP/3. According to a Netcraft web server survey, LiteSpeed had 6% of global market share of active sites as of September 2024. LiteSpeed Cache, a cache and performance module also known as LSCache, is built into LiteSpeed Web Server. LSCache can be managed via rewrite rules, or via plugins developed specifically for particular content management systems, including WordPress.
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| LiteSpeed Web Server | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Original author | George Wang |
| Developer | LiteSpeed Technologies |
| Initial release | July 1, 2003[1] |
| Stable release | 6.3.4
/ 1 August 2025[2] |
| Written in | C, C++ |
| Operating system | CloudLinux OS, AlmaLinux/Centos/Red Hat/Fedora, Debian/Ubuntu, FreeBSD |
| Type | Web server |
| License | Non-free proprietary or GPL3 |
| Website | www.litespeedtech.com/products/litespeed-web-server |
LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS) is proprietary web server software. It is the 4th most popular web server, estimated to be used by 13.9% of websites as of September 2024.[3] LSWS is developed by privately held LiteSpeed Technologies. The software uses the same configuration format as Apache HTTP Server and is compatible with most Apache features.[4][5] An open source variant[6] is also available.[7]
LSWS was released in 2003, and in August 2008 it became the 16th most popular web server.[8] In November 2016, LiteSpeed's market share grew from 0.39% to 3.29%, increasing its position from 10th to 4th most popular web server according to Netcraft.[9] In 2017, a team from Hong Kong Polytechnic University found it to be one of the six most popular web servers,[10] and it was estimated by a team at RWTH Aachen University to be running 9.2% of all HTTP/2-enabled websites.[11] As of September 2024, LSWS was used by 36.3% of websites using HTTP/3.[12]
According to a Netcraft web server survey, LiteSpeed had 6% of global market share of active sites as of September 2024.[13]
LiteSpeed Cache, a cache and performance module also known as LSCache, is built into LiteSpeed Web Server. LSCache can be managed via rewrite rules, or via plugins developed specifically for particular content management systems, including WordPress.
Features
[edit]LSWS is compatible with commonly used Apache features, including mod_rewrite, .htaccess, and mod_security. LSWS can load Apache configuration files directly and works as a drop-in replacement for Apache while fully integrating with popular control panels. LSWS replaces all Apache functions, but uses an event driven approach to handle requests.[14]
History
[edit]LiteSpeed Technologies was founded in early 2002 by a team of engineers led by George Wang. On July 1, 2003, LiteSpeed Web Server was officially released as a full-featured web server. In 2007, LiteSpeed Web Server became LiteSpeed Web Server Enterprise and was configured to be an Apache drop-in replacement. In that same year, the web server integrated with cPanel, DirectAdmin, and Plesk. LiteSpeed Web Server officially began supporting HTTP/2 in 2015 with version 5.0, and also released LSCache (cache plugin for WordPress) with ESI in version 5.0.10.[1] In 2017, LSWS released QUIC support.[15] In July 2019, LSWS announced support for HTTP/3.[16]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b "LiteSpeed Web Server Release Log Archive". LiteSpeed. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
- ^ "LiteSpeed Web Server Release Log". LiteSpeed. Retrieved 1 August 2025.
- ^ "Usage of web servers for websites". W3Techs. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
- ^ "August 2015 Web Server Survey". Netcraft. 13 August 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
- ^ Adelstein, Tom; Lubanovic, Bill (2007). Linux system administration (1st ed.). Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly. p. 162. ISBN 9780596009526. OCLC 71808193.
- ^ "How to install OpenLiteSpeed on Rocky Linux 9 | CentLinux". www.centlinux.com. 18 April 2023. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
- ^ "Get OpenLiteSpeed!". 28 October 2019. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
- ^ "August 2008 Web Server Survey". Netcraft. 29 August 2008. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
- ^ "November 2016 Web Server Survey". Netcraft. 22 November 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
- ^ Jiang, M.; Luo, X.; Miu, T.; Hu, S.; Rao, W. (June 2017). "Are HTTP/2 Servers Ready Yet?". 2017 IEEE 37th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS). pp. 1661–1671. doi:10.1109/icdcs.2017.279. ISBN 978-1-5386-1792-2. S2CID 4700093.
- ^ Zimmermann, Torsten; Rüth, Jan; Wolters, Benedikt; Hohlfeld, Oliver (2017). "How HTTP/2 Pushes the Web: An Empirical Study of HTTP/2 Server Push" (PDF). IFIP Networking Conference.
- ^ "Distribution of Web Servers among websites that use HTTP/3". W3techs.com. 26 September 2024. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
- ^ "Netcraft web server survey". Netcraft. 17 September 2024. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
- ^ "Event-Driven vs. Process-Based Web Servers". LiteSpeed. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
- ^ "LiteSpeed Announces QUIC Support". 11 July 2017. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
- ^ "LiteSpeed Web Server Release Log".