Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Portable Webserver VS lighttpd

Compare Portable Webserver VS lighttpd and see what are their differences

Portable Webserver logo Portable Webserver

It's a portable server manager that you can go anywhere, anytime, in any computer and run your...

lighttpd logo lighttpd

A secure, fast, compliant, and very flexible web-server that has been optimized for high-performance environments
  • Portable Webserver Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-24
  • lighttpd Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-28

Portable Webserver features and specs

  • Portability
    Portable Webserver can be run from a USB drive or other portable devices, allowing you to carry your development environment with you and run your server on different machines without installation.
  • Ease of Use
    The software is designed to be user-friendly, making it accessible for users who might not be very familiar with server configurations or command-line interfaces.
  • Lightweight
    Being a portable solution, it is typically lighter than full-fledged web servers, which can be advantageous when working on machines with limited resources.
  • Self-contained
    All necessary components are included in the portable package, simplifying setup and dependency management by having everything in one place.

Possible disadvantages of Portable Webserver

  • Limited Feature Set
    As a portable solution, it may not offer as many features or optimizations as more robust and full-scale servers like Apache or Nginx.
  • Performance
    Portable servers might not handle high traffic as efficiently as dedicated servers, making them less suitable for production environments with heavy loads.
  • Updates and Support
    Being a project hosted on SourceForge, it may not receive regular updates or have extensive community support compared to more widely used server solutions.
  • Security
    Security features might not be as comprehensive compared to established web servers, which could be a concern if handling sensitive data.

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.

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.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Portable Webserver and lighttpd)
Web And Application Servers
Web Servers
23 23%
77% 77
Development
100 100%
0% 0
Application Server
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

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

Portable Webserver Reviews

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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

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Portable Webserver and lighttpd, you can also consider the following products

WinNMP - Nginx MariaDB Redis Php development stack for Windows, with Composer, Adminer, LetsEncrypt...

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

Appserv - Simple package for programming Quickly and easy to install Apache, PHP, MySQL.

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

Winginx - Download Winginx · Docs · FAQ · Support · JA · RU · EN · Donate now. Discover a handy tool for web development! Enjoy; PHP 7. 1 (+ 5. 6); MySQL 5.

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