Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

AOL Server VS OpenResty

Compare AOL Server VS OpenResty and see what are their differences

AOL Server logo AOL Server

AOL Server is an open-source web server used for large scale, dynamic web sites.

OpenResty logo OpenResty

Turning Nginx into a Full-fledged Web App Server
  • AOL Server Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-12-06
  • OpenResty Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-16

AOL Server features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

OpenResty features and specs

  • High Performance
    Built on NGINX, OpenResty benefits from high-performance HTTP server capabilities, capable of handling a large number of simultaneous connections efficiently.
  • Extensibility
    Integrates seamlessly with the LuaJIT scripting language, allowing for powerful customizations and extending the server's functionality without the need to modify core code.
  • Rich Ecosystem
    Supports a wide range of third-party modules for various functionalities such as caching, security, request manipulation, and more, fostering a comprehensive and versatile ecosystem.
  • Asynchronous Processing
    Capable of non-blocking processing, which is essential for real-time web applications, ensuring lower latency and higher throughput.
  • Active Community and Support
    Backed by an active community and commercial support options, providing ample resources for troubleshooting, enhancing functionality, and keeping up with the latest best practices.

Possible disadvantages of OpenResty

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Requires proficiency in Lua scripting and understanding of NGINX configuration, which might be challenging for those new to these technologies.
  • Complex Debugging
    Debugging Lua code within OpenResty can be complex, lacking some of the more advanced debugging tools available for other languages.
  • Limited Documentation
    While there is documentation available, it may not be as comprehensive or beginner-friendly compared to other more mature web server ecosystems.
  • Niche Use Case
    Primarily suited for high-performance applications requiring custom HTTP server behavior, which might not be necessary for simpler web applications or APIs.
  • Resource Intensive
    Depending on the complexity of the Lua scripts and modules used, OpenResty can become resource-intensive, requiring careful optimization and resource management.

AOL Server videos

No AOL Server videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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OpenResty videos

Why and how I built my CMS based on ArangoDB & openresty

More videos:

  • Review - OpenResty Edge 2 Admin Intro: Episode 3: Applications - Cache & Req Rewrite

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to AOL Server and OpenResty)
Web And Application Servers
Application Server
10 10%
90% 90
Web Servers
10 10%
90% 90
Development Tools
50 50%
50% 50

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, OpenResty should be more popular than AOL Server. It has been mentiond 21 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

AOL Server mentions (3)

  • Ask HN: What is the best code base you ever worked on?
    Is this it? https://aolserver.github.io/. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Wapp – A Web-Application Framework for Tcl
    And of course anytime anyone mentions TCL and the web, we must take a moment to remember AOLserver: http://aolserver.github.io/. - Source: Hacker News / almost 4 years ago
  • Wapp – A Web-Application Framework for Tcl
    Tcl had a very short time in the fickle web dev spotlight, mostly due to Aolserver and Philip Greenspun. Something between CGI with Perl and whatever Java had to offer in the deep end of the 90s. At that time, a few lucky folks made way too much money using weird languages for the fledgling commercial internet. http://aolserver.github.io https://philip.greenspun.com/tcl/. - Source: Hacker News / almost 4 years ago

OpenResty mentions (21)

  • Scriptable Operating Systems with Lua [pdf]
    It's maybe deprecated by the official Nginx support, but there are other projects and organizations that are offering Lua scripting with Nginx with all kinds of extensions and libraries. See OpenResty website[0] and Github repo[1]. [0] - https://openresty.org/en/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: The C10M Problem
    Have you seen https://openresty.org/en/ before? To share a quote directly taken from their website: > By taking advantage of various well-designed Nginx modules (most of which are developed by the OpenResty team themselves), OpenResty® effectively turns the nginx server into a powerful web app server, in which the web developers can use the Lua programming language to script various existing nginx C modules and... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Show HN: Lockbox: forward proxy for making third party API calls
    Nginx is quite extendable, there are tons of nginx plugins to help you add more customizations. There is OpenResty, a version of nginx [0]. It allows you to script all sorts of stuff with Lua inside nginx itself. Tools like lockbox are not necessary, nginx, caddy, etc or heck even a normal 70 line python3 fastapi based script works just fine and should be more extendable than lockbox. [0](https://openresty.org/en/). - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Five Apache projects you probably didn't know about
    APISIX is an API Gateway. It builds upon OpenResty, a Lua layer built on top of the famous nginx reverse-proxy. APISIX adds abstractions to the mix, e.g., Route, Service, Upstream, and offers a plugin-based architecture. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Apache APISIX plugin priority, a leaky abstraction?
    Apache APISIX is an API Gateway, which builds upon the OpenResty reverse-proxy to offer a plugin-based architecture. The main benefit of such an architecture is that it brings structure to the configuration of routes. It's a help at scale, when managing hundreds or thousands of routes. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing AOL Server and OpenResty, you can also consider the following products

Apache Tomcat - An open source software implementation of the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies

Apache HTTP Server - Apache httpd has been the most popular web server on the Internet since April 1996

LiteSpeed Web Server - LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS) is a high-performance Apache drop-in replacement.

XAMPP - XAMPP is a free and open-source cross-platform web server that is primarily used when locally developing web applications.

Microsoft IIS - Internet Information Services is a web server for Microsoft Windows

Apache Rivet - Other Web Frameworks