Apache, NginX, or LiteSpeed? This is the question that comes to users’ when choosing hosting for their WordPress/ClassicPress websites.
So, Apache, NginX or LiteSpeed? Which web server is the fastest, trouble-free, and uses fewer resources? In one word, which web server is the best for WordPress/ClassicPress hosting?
In our hosting stack, we use the LiteSpeed. It’s the best web server available for today and by a wide margin because at its core it was built for WordPress and is being developed for WordPress. It is faster than NginX, but has the compatibility of Apache.
Let’s dig deeper into the most important features and compare LiteSpeed with NginX and Apache.
Speed
LiteSpeed is the fastest web server, and by a wide margin.
LiteSpeed optimizes speed and performance according to real-world traffic. For example, when using the LiteSpeed Cache plugin, it stores the cached items compressed, as it would be served to most users, whereas NginX if you’re doing it similar with fastcgi_cache, stores files uncompressed.
Not only is the cached content served faster because LiteSpeed is a faster server than Apache or NginX. The main strength of LiteSpeed Cache is the real server-side caching. LiteSpeed Cache plugin communicates directly with LiteSpeed’s web server in order to store the static copies of dynamically-generated web pages. It means, LiteSpeed Cache uses a fast LiteSpeed server to generate cached pages rather than slow and CPU-intensive PHP.
The cache crawler crawls website and refreshes pages with expired cache without relying on external visitors to fulfill the cache. It adjusts its own level of resource consumption according to the server load to ensure that for real visitors, your website always loads fast.
Server-level full page cache gives accuracy and intelligence that other application-level plugins cannot duplicate. This plugin-server duo is an unbeatable solution for speed seekers.
LiteSpeed Cache Plugin
LiteSpeed Cache is much more than just a fast cache management plugin. Because the plugin is deeply integrated into the LiteSpeed web server, it has cache management tools that can’t be found in any other caching plugin. Just try it, one experiment is worth a thousand expert opinions.
A vast array of additional features helps you to improve the performance of your website tremendously. Here are just a few important ones:
1. Database optimization. It replaces some “must use” database optimization plugins.
2. Image optimization. You don’t need other image optimization plugins anymore!
3. Browser cache support.
4. ESI (Edge Side Includes) support out of the box.
5. CSS, HTML, and JavaScript minification.
6. A tag-based smart cache purging, the capability to cash multiple versions of generated content that is based on visitors, geo locations, currencies, and more.
7. With HTTP/2 Server Push, the plugin acts instantly without waiting for a separate request, which will make your pages load faster. (A reminder: all our servers use HTTP/2)
In general, WordPress/ClassicPress can work on the LiteSpeed server without the LiteSpeed Cache plugin. But the plugin raises whole stack to the level, unreachable by any other web server – any other caching plugin combination.
In our hosting, the LiteSpeed Cache plugin is preinstalled in every WordPress & ClassicPress.
Server Resources
LiteSpeed can handle much more concurrent users than NginX or Apache.
It means, you can use smaller VPS for the same traffic, or you can handle more traffic with the same VPS.
With proper caching, you can handle sudden traffic increase without the need to upgrade your server.
It means you are better prepared for traffic spikes if your post becomes viral, or you are mentioned in the mainstream media.
It means you can use cheaper plans than with Apache or NginX web servers.
It means, no fancy caching setups, which still underperform, but use more server resources.
LiteSpeed offers exceptional performance when serving from the cache, and is capable of handling a massive amount of concurrent traffic, at the same time keeping server load low.
Compatibility
Unlike NginX, LiteSpeed doesn’t have any compatibility issues with WordPress/ClassicPress and is a drop-in replacement of Apache.
It means no need to change anything. All plugins will work out-of-the-box. The usual .htaccess functionality will work. like all the other compatibility goodies.
LiteSpeed supports WordPress multi-sites, works seamlessly with complex plugins, such as WooCommerce, bbPress, WPML, and any others. Also, it’s officially announced, that it supports ClassicPress as well.
The Best WordPress/ClassicPress Web Server
The best WordPress/ClassicPress hostings use only LiteSpeed web server, period.
Faster websites, more traffic with the same hardware. Full compatibility with Apache. Powerful LiteSpeed Cache plugin.
Except for lack of knowledge of how to handle it, we don’t see any reasons not to use LiteSpeed on WordPress/ClassicPress hosting. (Maybe, just maybe, here lies the answer, why so few hosts deployed it.)
The best WordPress/ClassicPress hostings use only LiteSpeed web server, period. Please, tweet thisFor today, LiteSpeed is the best web server for WordPress/ClassicPress. That’s why we use it. You can test it by yourself by joining our clients’ list. Welcome!
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