What is LiteSpeed?

The fastest Web Server on Earth

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Unbeatable Performance, Drop-In Compatibility, Cutting-Edge Features, Enormous Scalability

From a distance, LiteSpeed is a web server like Apache or ngnix. Up close, LiteSpeed is a very special web server. LiteSpeed originates from the US company LiteSpeed Inc. of the same name and was launched in 2001. The LiteSpeed web server is therefore not a new release. However, the degree of distribution is largely concentrated in Asia, the USA and Australia. In Europe, the LiteSpeed web server is only known sporadically.

From a technological point of view, the LiteSpeed web server is more similar to the nginx web server because it also has an event-driven architecture. LiteSpeed shares the directives of the Apache web server and also uses its httpd.conf. Therefore the LiteSpeed webserver is not an Apache fork. The so-called LSWS (LiteSpeed Webserver Enterprise) is a complete in-house development that is almost 100% Apache compatible. So switching from Apache to LiteSpeed is like switching from Apache to Apache, but when you switch to LiteSpeed you get a modern software architecture and not the outdated Apache architecture that dates back to the last millennium.

The LiteSpeed web server positions itself after nginx as number 3 in the world web server ranking and this with a continuously increasing trend. Apart from the same event driven architecture as that of nginx, the LiteSpeed web server stands out from all other web servers in that LiteSpeed beats all other web servers by far and that in every respect. But neither special nor expensive hosting is required for this. Although the LSWS is a proprietary web server and there are license costs for it, you can also get LiteSpeed hosting together with shared hosting, for which there are no license costs. LSWS hosting is therefore just as expensive or cheap as Apache hosting. However, LiteSpeed hosting is not available from every internet provider. LiteSpeed hostings are few and far between, especially in Europe. If you operate a dedicated server or a VPS with Shell Access, a server pre-installed with Apache can easily be exchanged for a LiteSpeed web server, which is another special feature of the LSWS. This was designed as a snap-in replacement for Apache. The simple and script-controlled installation, which takes less than 2 minutes, can be carried out during operation without any downtime occurring. This also applies to regular updates. During installation, the LiteSpeed web server reads Apache httpd.conf and continues to use it after installation. From this it can now be concluded that the LiteSpeed web server can be administered in the same way as an Apache web server, although the LSWS has numerous additional functions that you can't even get for money from any web server provider.

Another highlight is the integration of the LSWS into common control panels for server administration, such as cPanel, Plesk and other CPs. In addition, the LSWS has its own control panel, which is mainly used to manage the extra functions mentioned, but is mainly used if you want to operate the LSWS natively, i.e. without a control panel for server administration.

As already mentioned, the LiteSpeed web server has numerous additional functions, all of which are RFC standardized. A not entirely unimportant additional function is the HTTP/3 protocol or QUIC (Quick UDP Internet Connections). With the LSWS you get the latest HTTP protocol, which has not only been supported by all current browsers for years, but you also get extra speed with it. This is especially true when the first connection is established between client and server in HTTPS mode. SSL encryption, or the so-called handshake for SSL connections, is carried out with the HTTP/2 protocol via the TCP protocol and was not actually intended for this. That is why the handshake in question involves several round trips. The server and client must therefore first exchange information or negotiate about the connection conditions several times. This inevitably takes (too) much time until the connection is established and only then can data be transferred. With the HTTP/3 protocol, the handshake takes place via the UDP protocol and is significantly faster. Incidentally, QUIC is an invention of Google, which for a long time only used its own version of QUIC for its own Google services. Thanks to the widespread Chrome browser and the support of QUIC in all other browsers, there have been no restrictions on the use of QUIC and the HTTP/3 protocol ever since. However, Google released QUIC several years ago and has ratified the RFC 9000 since 2022, where it has been incorporated into the HTTP/3 protocol.

In addition to the proprietary licensed LiteSpeed webserver Enterprise, there is also the free OpenLiteSpeed version, which is functionally almost identical to the Enterprise, but this version does not offer ESI (Edge Side Include) support.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting providers offering LiteSpeed report significant reductions in server load, which translates into improved performance and reliability for each client hosted on the server.

Speed

Cutting-edge features make LiteSpeed-powered websites significantly faster than the competition. Traffic spikes are handled with minimal performance impact.

Security

LiteSpeed takes security very seriously and provides site administrators with the most powerful, state-of-the-art security features available to keep client sites safe and secure.

Premium WordPress Hosting

LSCache for WordPress uses advanced cache management tools and optimization features to create an unmatched user experience.

Server-level full-page cache gives LSCache a level of accuracy and intelligence that other application-level plugins cannot duplicate

The crawler pre-caches your customer's websites so that they load quickly on the first visit.

LSCache offers premium optimization features for faster page loads and improved results on page speed measurement websites such as PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix.

E-commerce websites can be fully cached under LSCache, including shopping carts and other personalized content.

Super Fast

Powerful LSCache for dynamic content
PHP LSAPI is faster than PHP/FPM. Static files - 4X-6X faster than Apache. LSCache - 100x faster game changer

Handle tons of concurrent users
Event driven architecture like nginx. No quick drop over 100-200 concurrent users.

Triple your server capacity, reduce hardware and support costs

Secure

Smarter and Faster WAF
Compatible with Apache mod_security rules. Uses many fewer server resources.

WordPress Brute-Force Protection
Built-in brute-force protection at the server level, drops malicious connections once detected. It is much more efficient than any other plugin-level protection.

Advanced Anti-DDoS
Per-IP throttling at different levels: connection, request, and bandwidth.

External Applications suEXEC
Running as user for PHP/Ruby/CGI/FCGI/LSAPI etc.

Compatibility

Apache Interchangeable
If your site runs on Apache, it runs on LiteSpeed. No need to change anything. LiteSpeed will read Apache configuration files directly.

.htaccess Compatibility
Efficient .htaccess implementation with no performance degradation.

cPanel/WHM Integrated
Supports EA4, Alt-PHP. Switch between Apache & LiteSpeed with one click. cPanel/WHM works exactly the same as with Apache.

Compatible with CloudLinux
Supports CloudLinux LVE/CageFS, PHP/Ruby/Python/Node.js Selectors.

Cutting Edge Technologies

HTTP/3, QUIC, TLS/1.3
LSWS provides the fastest HTTPS with cutting-edge support for QUIC and HTTP/3.

ESI (Edge Side Include) Cache
Punch holes for private/changeable data on public pages using ESI. Together with LSCache, ESI lets you serve the entire mixed-content page from cache.

Brotli Compression
Brotli compression (superior to gzip) available for both static and dynamic content.

TFO (TCP Fast OPEN)
Speeds up TCP connections.

Simple Stack

Better than cPnginx
No need for messy NGINX-Apache hybrid setups. Removes one layer of proxy, which means faster serving of dynamic content.

No more Varnish needed
LSCache is faster and uses less CPU/memory compared to Varnish. No extra layer for HTTPS termination required.

No need to migrate to NGINX
No need to deal with NGINX rewrites. Stop harassing your sys-admins.

No more wasting time tuning your Apache
LiteSpeed has an event-driven architecture like NGINX. Apache is a multi-process, multi-threaded server, which cannot come close to the performance of an event-driven server, no matter how you tune it.