Web Servers Compared: Apache, Nginx, and Beyond
Web Servers Compared: Apache, Nginx, and Beyond Web servers sit between the internet and applications. They listen for requests, decide how to respond, and deliver pages and data. Apache and Nginx are the two most common choices today, but other options exist for specific needs. The right pick depends on traffic, technology, and how you want to manage configuration. Apache is known for flexibility. It has a long history, a large set of modules, and strong compatibility with many PHP and CGI setups. It supports per-directory rules with .htaccess, which helps shared hosting and rapid changes without touching the main config. On the downside, Apache can use more memory and CPU under heavy load, and serving a lot of static files may be slower unless you tune it or combine with a caching layer. ...