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lighttpd VS OpenResty

Compare lighttpd VS OpenResty and see what are their differences

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lighttpd logo lighttpd

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

OpenResty logo OpenResty

Turning Nginx into a Full-fledged Web App Server
  • lighttpd Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-28
  • OpenResty Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-16

lighttpd features and specs

  • Low Memory Footprint
    Lighttpd is known for its low memory usage, making it ideal for environments where memory resources are limited.
  • High Performance
    It is designed to handle large numbers of parallel connections efficiently, making it suitable for high-traffic websites.
  • Easy to Configure
    Lighttpd offers straightforward configuration files that are easy to understand and modify.
  • Supports FastCGI, SCGI, and CGI
    It has built-in support for various interfaces like FastCGI, SCGI, and CGI, allowing it to interact with different types of applications.
  • Event-Driven Architecture
    The event-driven design allows for non-blocking and asynchronous operations, contributing to its speed and efficiency.

Possible disadvantages of lighttpd

  • Limited Module Support
    Lighttpd has fewer third-party modules and plugins compared to more popular web servers like Apache and Nginx.
  • Community Support
    The community around Lighttpd is smaller, which might result in slower updates and fewer tutorials or examples.
  • Learning Curve
    New users might find the initial setup and configuration challenging compared to more widely-used web servers.
  • Compatibility Issues
    Some applications or tools that are designed with Apache or Nginx in mind might not work seamlessly with Lighttpd.
  • Less Frequent Updates
    The development and release cycle for Lighttpd updates may not be as frequent as for more popular web servers.

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.

Analysis of lighttpd

Overall verdict

  • Overall, lighttpd is a highly recommended choice for those needing a lightweight and efficient web server, especially where system resources are constrained.

Why this product is good

  • Lighttpd is often considered a good web server because it is designed to be fast, secure, and very lightweight. It effectively handles large volumes of traffic, supports important features like FastCGI, SCGI, Auth, Output Compression, URL Rewriting, and is highly configurable. Its asynchronous architecture allows it to serve multiple requests simultaneously, making it suitable for environments with high concurrency.

Recommended for

    Lighttpd is especially suited for situations where low resource usage is a priority, such as on embedded systems or servers with limited hardware capabilities. It is also useful for hosting static content, serving as a reverse proxy, or when hosting web applications with specific performance requirements.

lighttpd videos

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OpenResty videos

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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 lighttpd and OpenResty)

lighttpd

OpenResty

Web And Application Servers
52 52%
Web And Application Servers
48% 48
Web Servers
52 52%
Web Servers
48% 48
Application Server
47 47%
Application Server
53% 53
Development Tools
86 86%
Development Tools
14% 14

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare lighttpd and OpenResty

lighttpd Reviews

13 Best XAMPP Alternatives
Lighttpd is a simple and lightweight web server that allows you to do very fast static file serving. It can also be used as a content cache, a reverse proxy, or an HTTP accelerator. Lighttpd is not only lightning-fast but also straightforward to set up; in many cases, you only need one configuration file to work. Lighttpd has been around for some time now, so there are...
Source: thetechtian.com
Top 5 open source web servers
Great article Robin. Most of my experience is with Apache. I first started using it on Windows about 1998 or 1999. When I got into using Linux in 2001 I switched my previous install to that OS and have since deployed it many times. I have tried NGINX and lighttpd but never in production.
Source: opensource.com
Alternative web servers compared: Lighttpd, Nginx, LiteSpeed and Zeus
The huge leap for Lighttpd in January-March of 2007 is most likely due to one or more web hosting or domain registration companies switching over to Lighttpd either for their regular pages, or for parked pages, or both. If anyone knows what happened there in more detail, please feel free to let us know in the comments.
Source: www.pingdom.com

OpenResty Reviews

We have no reviews of OpenResty yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, OpenResty seems to be more popular. 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.

lighttpd mentions (0)

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

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 lighttpd and OpenResty, you can also consider the following products

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

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

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

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

Forge - Static web hosting made simple

Phusion Passenger - Phusion Passenger is a multi-language (Ruby, Python, Node) web & app server which can integrate into Apache and Nginx

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