The Best Web Server Software in 2026
We researched web server software through official websites, including pricing pages, plan tables, and product documentation. Products are ranked on their core job, value for money, and verified features, helping buyers compare reliable options for delivering HTTP content and handling web requests.
Our top picks
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Top ranked
NGINX#1 of 369.4/10A focused self-hosted choice for serving, proxying, caching, and traffic control.
Free plan
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Runner-up
Apache HTTP Server#2 of 369.3/10A mature, flexible choice for self-managed websites, applications, and HTTP traffic.
Free plan
-
Top-ranked free plan
LiteSpeed Web Server#3 of 368.9/10A capable Apache-compatible server for paid Linux hosting and control panels.
Free plan
Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. Vendors can pay for top positions in our rankings and for a place on other products' pages, and we may earn a commission when you click some links. Bought places stand at the number bought; this page and our disclosure say so. Paying vendors may get a fuller, more detailed review from our editors, and that review can change their score. How we rank.
The full ranking 36 tools, best first
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Best forHigh-performance proxying and web serving
A focused self-hosted choice for serving, proxying, caching, and traffic control.
- WebSocket support
9.4/10★★★★★Visit NGINX -
Best forBroad, mature self-hosted web serving
A mature, flexible choice for self-managed websites, applications, and HTTP traffic.
- HTTP/2 support
- Windows support
- WebSocket support
9.3/10★★★★★Visit Apache -
Best forPaid Linux web hosting and control panels
A capable Apache-compatible server for paid Linux hosting and control panels.
- HTTP/3 support
- HTTP/2 support
- WebSocket support
8.9/10★★★★☆Visit LiteSpeed -
Best forProgrammable web applications and gateways
OpenResty suits teams building programmable web applications and dynamic gateways.
- HTTP/3 support
- Commercial support
- HTTP/2 support
8.8/10★★★★☆Visit OpenResty -
Best forSimple HTTPS reverse proxy deployment
A focused, self-hosted choice for simple HTTPS reverse proxy deployment.
- WebSocket support
8.7/10★★★★☆Visit Caddy -
Best forLinux hosting with a graphical administration UI
A free, Linux-focused web server with graphical administration and broad web-stack support.
- HTTP/3 support
- HTTP/2 support
- WebSocket support
8.6/10★★★★☆Visit OpenLiteSpeed -
Best forManaged deployment of Ruby, Python, and Node apps
A self-hosted application server with broad Unix support and paid support tiers.
- Commercial support
- HTTP/2 support
- WebSocket support
8.5/10★★★★☆Visit Passenger -
Best forMulti-application Python deployments
A flexible, open-source choice for running and supervising multiple Python applications.
- Commercial support
- Windows support
- WebSocket support
8.4/10★★★★☆Visit uWSGI -
Best forLightweight cross-platform web serving
A lightweight, capable web server for static content, PHP backends, and proxying.
- HTTP/2 support
- Windows support
- WebSocket support
8.3/10★★★★☆Visit lighttpd -
Best forDynamic NGINX-compatible deployments
A capable open-source choice for dynamic, NGINX-compatible self-hosted deployments.
- HTTP/3 support
- HTTP/2 support
- WebSocket support
8.2/10★★★★☆Visit Tengine -
Best forEfficient HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 serving
An open-source self-hosted server focused on modern HTTP delivery and proxying.
- HTTP/3 support
- HTTP/2 support
- WebSocket support
8.1/10★★★★☆Visit H2O -
Best forPython WSGI and ASGI applications
A free, open-source application server for Python web apps on UNIX-like systems.
- Commercial support
- HTTP/2 support
- WebSocket support
7.9/10★★★★☆Visit Gunicorn -
Best forTcl-based applications and custom extensions
A programmable, self-hosted web server for teams building with Tcl and custom extensions.
- HTTP/3 support
- HTTP/2 support
- Windows support
7.8/10★★★★☆Visit NaviServer -
Best forSecurity-focused lightweight hosting
A compact, security-focused server for self-hosted websites and applications.
- HTTP/2 support
- Windows support
- WebSocket support
7.7/10★★★★☆Visit Hiawatha -
Best forAPI traffic management rather than web serving
A hybrid API management platform for policy control, analytics, portals, and monetization.
7.6/10★★★★☆Visit Red Hat -
Best forPHP applications needing workers and queues
A PHP-focused server for managed workers, queues, plugins, and modern protocols.
- HTTP/3 support
- HTTP/2 support
- Windows support
7.6/10★★★★☆Visit RoadRunner -
Best forModern PHP applications and containers
A focused open-source server for modern PHP applications, containers, and real-time updates.
- HTTP/3 support
- Commercial support
- HTTP/2 support
7.5/10★★★★☆Visit FrankenPHP -
Best forEmbedded and IoT web serving
A broad embedded networking library for device interfaces, telemetry, updates, and connectivity.
- Commercial support
- Windows support
- WebSocket support
7.4/10★★★★☆Visit Cesanta -
Best forEmbedded C/C++ web applications
A free, open-source web server for embedding HTTP services into C/C++ applications.
- HTTP/2 support
- Windows support
- WebSocket support
7.2/10★★★★☆Visit CivetWeb -
Best forStatic sites with compression and metrics
A compact static server with compression, caching, TLS, and built-in metrics.
- HTTP/2 support
- Windows support
7.1/10★★★★☆Visit site -
Best forSmall cross-platform paid deployments
A focused cross-platform server with a free personal edition and capable paid deployments.
- Commercial support
- HTTP/2 support
- Windows support
7.0/10★★★★☆Visit Aprelium -
Best forPortable Windows Apache stacks
A modular, registry-free Apache stack for Windows development and portable deployments.
- Windows support
- Plugin or module system
6.8/10★★★☆☆Visit Uniform Server -
Best forLocal bundled PHP development stacks
A free, open-source bundle for building and testing PHP applications locally.
- Windows support
- Plugin or module system
6.7/10★★★☆☆Visit Apache Friends -
Best forPortable Windows PHP development
A practical local PHP stack for Windows developers who value portability and control.
- Windows support
- Plugin or module system
6.6/10★★★☆☆Visit EasyPHP -
Best forWindows local PHP and Node development
A free Windows development environment with nginx, databases and local project tools.
- Windows support
- Plugin or module system
6.5/10★★★☆☆Visit Winginx -
Best forPortable Windows website demonstrations
A free, open-source Windows bundle for offline PHP site demos and local testing.
- Windows support
- Plugin or module system
6.4/10★★★☆☆Visit USBWebserver -
Best forHardened OpenBSD static and FastCGI serving
A focused, free HTTP daemon for OpenBSD static and FastCGI workloads.
6.3/10★★★☆☆Visit OpenBSD -
Best forBasic, low-resource HTTP serving
A free, focused HTTP server for operators who need low-resource serving.
6.2/10★★★☆☆Visit ACME -
Best forMinimal Linux and embedded deployments
A focused open-source HTTP server for resource-constrained Linux deployments.
- HTTP/2 support
- Plugin or module system
6.1/10★★★☆☆Visit Monkey -
Best forSmall Lua and WebSocket deployments
A focused self-hosted server for small Lua and WebSocket deployments.
- WebSocket support
- Plugin or module system
6.0/10★★★☆☆Visit Lwan -
Best forAsynchronous Python web applications
A focused open-source choice for Python applications with long-lived connections.
- Windows support
- WebSocket support
- Plugin or module system
5.9/10★★★☆☆Visit Tornado -
Best forRuby web applications
A free, open-source Ruby server with concurrency, clustering, SSL, and restart controls.
- Windows support
- WebSocket support
- Plugin or module system
5.8/10★★★☆☆Visit Puma -
Best forRacket-native web applications
A free, open-source choice for building Racket web applications and HTTP services.
- Windows support
- WebSocket support
- Plugin or module system
5.7/10★★★☆☆Visit Racket -
Best forOCaml teams using the Eliom framework
A focused Linux web server for OCaml teams building with Eliom.
5.6/10★★★☆☆Visit Ocsigen -
Best forWindows Apache bundles with central administration
A Windows-focused WAMP bundle for centralized Apache, database, FTP and mail administration.
- Commercial support
- Windows support
- Plugin or module system
5.5/10★★★☆☆Visit SecureWAMP -
Best forEnterprise content management, not web serving
A document and records platform, not a conventional web server.
5.4/10★★★☆☆Visit Oracle
No tools match those filters.
Compare at a glance
| # | Tool | Free plan | Paid from | HTTP/2 support | WebSocket support | Supported platforms | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NGINX | Yes | Free | Yes | 9.4 | ||
| 2 | Apache HTTP Server | Yes | Free | Yes | Yes | Linux, Windows, macOS, and most Unix-like systems | 9.3 |
| 3 | LiteSpeed Web Server | Yes | $110/yr | Yes | Yes | Linux, FreeBSD, macOS, Solaris | 8.9 |
| 4 | OpenResty | Yes | Free | Yes | Yes | Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker | 8.8 |
| 5 | Caddy | Yes | Free | Yes | 8.7 | ||
| 6 | OpenLiteSpeed | Yes | Free | Yes | Yes | Linux distributions including Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, and derivatives | 8.6 |
| 7 | Phusion Passenger | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ubuntu, Debian, Enterprise Linux, macOS, Amazon Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris and other Unix systems | 8.5 | |
| 8 | uWSGI | Yes | Free | Yes | Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFlyBSD, Windows Cygwin, macOS, Solaris, NexentaOS, SmartOS, OpenSolaris, OpenIndiana, OmniOS, Debian/kFreeBSD, GNU/Hurd | 8.4 | |
| 9 | lighttpd | Yes | Free | Yes | Yes | Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, SGI IRIX, Windows via Cygwin, macOS | 8.3 |
| 10 | Tengine | Yes | Free | Yes | Yes | Linux, macOS, and multi-architecture containers | 8.2 |
| 11 | H2O | Yes | Free | Yes | Yes | Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, Docker | 8.1 |
| 12 | Gunicorn | Yes | Free | Yes | Yes | UNIX/POSIX, Linux, macOS, Docker | 7.9 |
| 13 | NaviServer | Yes | Free | Yes | Yes | Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, OpenSolaris, IRIX, HP/UX, DEC Tru64, UnixWare, macOS, Windows | 7.8 |
| 14 | Hiawatha | Yes | Free | Yes | Yes | Linux, BSD, macOS, Cygwin/Windows | 7.7 |
| 15 | Red Hat 3scale API Management | 7.6 | |||||
| 16 | RoadRunner | Yes | Free | Yes | Yes | Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, WSL2 | 7.6 |
| 17 | FrankenPHP | Free | Yes | No | Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes | 7.5 | |
| 18 | Mongoose Web Server | Yes | Yes | Linux/UNIX, macOS, Windows, Android, iPhone, embedded Linux, RTOS, and microcontrollers | 7.4 | ||
| 19 | CivetWeb | Yes | Free | Yes | Yes | Windows, Mac, Linux, UNIX, iOS, Android, Buildroot | 7.2 |
| 20 | Static Web Server | Yes | Free | Yes | Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Android, Docker, WebAssembly | 7.1 | |
| 21 | Abyss Web Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | Windows, macOS, Linux | 7.0 | |
| 22 | The Uniform Server | Yes | Free | Windows | 6.8 | ||
| 23 | XAMPP | Yes | Free | Windows, Linux, macOS | 6.7 | ||
| 24 | EasyPHP | Yes | Free | Windows 7/8/10/11 | 6.6 | ||
| 25 | Winginx | Yes | Free | Windows | 6.5 | ||
| 26 | USBWebserver | Yes | Free | Windows | 6.4 | ||
| 27 | OpenBSD httpd | Yes | Free | OpenBSD-supported platforms: alpha, amd64, arm64, armv7, hppa, i386, landisk, luna88k, macppc, octeon, powerpc64, riscv64, sparc64 | 6.3 | ||
| 28 | thttpd | Yes | Free | No | FreeBSD, SunOS 4, Solaris 2, BSD/OS, Linux, OSF | 6.2 | |
| 29 | Monkey HTTP Server | Free | Yes | Linux, macOS, BSD, embedded Linux | 6.1 | ||
| 30 | Lwan | Free | No | Yes | Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, macOS | 6.0 | |
| 31 | Tornado | Yes | Free | No | Yes | Linux, BSD, macOS, Solaris, Windows | 5.9 |
| 32 | Puma | Yes | Free | No | Yes | MRI Ruby, JRuby, Rubinius and other Ruby implementations | 5.8 |
| 33 | Racket Web Server | Yes | Free | Yes | Windows, macOS, Linux | 5.7 | |
| 34 | Ocsigen Server | Yes | Free | Linux | 5.6 | ||
| 35 | SecureWAMP | Yes | Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit) | 5.5 | |||
| 36 | Oracle WebCenter Content | No | 5.4 |
Head-to-head All 27 comparisons →
- NGINX vs Apache HTTP Server
- NGINX vs LiteSpeed Web Server
- NGINX vs OpenResty
- NGINX vs OpenLiteSpeed
- NGINX vs Phusion Passenger
- NGINX vs uWSGI
- Apache HTTP Server vs LiteSpeed Web Server
- Apache HTTP Server vs OpenResty
- Apache HTTP Server vs Caddy
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How we rank web server software
Every tool on this page was researched by iTechGuides Editors from its official website — pricing pages, plan tables and product documentation. We rank on how well each one does this category's core job, what the free or entry plan includes, and where it falls short. Where we have enough verified facts, the score out of 10 is a rubric — job fit, value and how much we could verify — shown with its breakdown on every tool's page; a tool we have not verified enough to score yet shows its rank without a number. Scores are re-checked when a product changes its plans. Read the full editorial policy, or submit a tool we missed.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Last updated · How we research and update