Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups
Register | Login

HTTP VS SimpleHTTPServer

Compare HTTP VS SimpleHTTPServer and see what are their differences

1Password
1Password can create strong, unique passwords for you, remember them, and restore them, all directly in your web browser. featured
Contents:
  1. » Base Details
  2. » Reviews
  3. » Alternatives

HTTP logo HTTP

is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, and hypermedia information systems.

SimpleHTTPServer logo SimpleHTTPServer

Serve a single directory over HTTP
  • HTTP Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-12-21
  • SimpleHTTPServer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-22

HTTP features and specs

  • Simplicity
    HTTP is a simple protocol that is easy to understand and implement, making it accessible for developers and widely adopted across the web.
  • Statelessness
    HTTP is stateless, meaning each request from a client to server is independent, which simplifies server design and allows for easier scaling.
  • Flexibility
    HTTP is designed to transport different types of data and supports a variety of methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.), making it flexible for various applications.
  • Extensibility
    HTTP supports extensions and new methods, headers, and functionalities can be added without breaking existing implementations.
  • Cacheability
    HTTP supports caching which can reduce latency and network congestion and improve efficiency by storing copies of resources closer to the client.

Possible disadvantages of HTTP

  • Overhead
    HTTP headers add overhead to requests and responses, which can impact performance, especially for small payloads.
  • Statelessness Complexity
    While statelessness simplifies the protocol, it complicates maintaining application state across requests, requiring additional mechanisms such as cookies or session tokens.
  • Security
    HTTP itself lacks encryption, making data vulnerable to interception and attack unless combined with SSL/TLS (as in HTTPS).
  • Performance Limitations
    HTTP/1.1 limits performance through sequential request-response patterns, leading to inefficiencies under high latency networks or with multiple small requests.
  • Resource Identification
    URLs can become complex and unwieldy when managing a large number of resources, leading to potential difficulties in resource management and organization.

SimpleHTTPServer features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    SimpleHTTPServer is extremely easy to use, requiring just a single command to spin up a basic web server, making it ideal for quick testing and development purposes.
  • No Installation Required
    As a standard module in Python 2.7, SimpleHTTPServer does not require any additional installation processes, reducing setup time for developers.
  • Platform Independent
    Being part of Python's standard library, it is platform-independent and can run on any system that supports Python.

Possible disadvantages of SimpleHTTPServer

  • Security
    SimpleHTTPServer lacks security features like HTTPS, authentication mechanisms, and protection against vulnerabilities, which makes it unsuitable for production environments.
  • Limited Functionality
    Designed for serving static files, SimpleHTTPServer lacks advanced functionalities like CGI scripting or integration with databases needed for dynamic content serving.
  • Obsolete
    Being a part of Python 2.7 which is no longer maintained, SimpleHTTPServer is obsolete, and users are encouraged to use Python 3, specifically the http.server module for better functionality and support.
  • Single Threaded
    By default, SimpleHTTPServer handles requests sequentially in a single-threaded manner, which can result in performance bottlenecks when handling multiple requests simultaneously.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to HTTP and SimpleHTTPServer)

HTTP

SimpleHTTPServer

VPN
100 100%
VPN
0% 0
Web Servers
38 38%
Web Servers
62% 62
Security
100 100%
Security
0% 0
Web And Application Servers
0 0%
Web And Application Servers
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using HTTP and SimpleHTTPServer. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, HTTP seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 8 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.

HTTP mentions (8)

  • State management in Svelte apps
    HTTP was invented as a stateless protocol, which means that each request fully encapsulates all of the information necessary to return a correct response. So historically, web pages never had to worry about managing state - each request to a URL with parameters or with a form submission would receive a response with all of the HTML that the browser needed to render content. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Evolving the Web: Discovering the History of HTTP Versions
    HTTP/1.1 was such a game changer for the Internet that it works so well that even through two revisions, RFC 2616 published in June 1999 and RFC 7230– RFC 7235 published in June 2014, HTTP/1.1 was extremely stable until the release of HTTP/2.0 in 2014 — Nearly 18 years later. Before continuing to the next section about HTTP/2.0, let us revisit what journey HTTP/1.1 has been through. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Poll: Are client web requests sent to upstream servers or downstream servers?
    On the one hand, it just seems natural that "upstream" refers to the inbound request being sent from one system to another. It takes effort (connection pooling, throttling, retries, etc.) to make a request to an (upstream) dependency, just as it takes effort to swim upstream. The response is (usually) easy... Just return it... hence, "downstream". Recall the usual meaning of "upload" and "download". Upstream seems... - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
  • How to cache TCP, SSL handshake on ALB?
    To me it sounds like you’ve not solved this as the config you’ve mentioned is about preventing “illegal” (none RFC7230 ) requests, it isn’t really related to the problem you posted. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • HTTP Protocol Overview
    The program you are using to send data to the server may or may not automatically determine the right content-type header for your data, and knowing how to set and check headers is an essential skill. To learn more about the HTTP protocol check out the MDN guide or read the official standard, RFC 7230. - Source: dev.to / about 4 years ago
View more

SimpleHTTPServer mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of SimpleHTTPServer yet. Tracking of SimpleHTTPServer recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing HTTP and SimpleHTTPServer, you can also consider the following products

thttpd - thttpd is a simple, small, portable, fast, and secure HTTP server.

nginx - A high performance free open source web server powering busiest sites on the Internet.

Dat - Real-time replication and versioning for data sets

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

mini_httpd - mini_httpd is a small HTTP server for low or medium traffic sites.

lighttpd - A secure, fast, compliant, and very flexible web-server that has been optimized for high-performance environments

Loading...