Apache Web Server: Good choice for websites
March 02, 2019
Apache Web Server: Good choice for websites
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Apache Web Server
Our company is currently operating three websites that are running on Apache Web Server. Apache handles page/file requests and serves those to visitors. Apache supports PHP, which is what WordPress is built on. All of our websites are WordPress sites. Apache supports common functions necessary to site administration including FTP and URL rewriting.
- Apache allows for single site configuration using .htaccess files. This allows you to make changes on a micro level.
- Apache offers WHM which allows experienced server admins a powerful tool for configuring their web server.
- Apache is well maintained. It receives frequent feature upgrades, security patches, and vulnerability improvements.
- Apache spawns new processes for each request.
- Apache allows you to modify its configuration (which is a plus). This, however, can cause a serious threat to the security, if not done properly.
- Apache consumes more RAM under heavier load.
- It's hard for us to determine ROI from Apache since most of our sites don't receive high traffic and we don't benchmark performance as often or aggressively as we could.
- Apache is well documented and extremely common in web hosting offerings, so configuring it and working with it becomes easier.
- Apache supports cPanel which is a web hosting control panel that makes performing tasks such as implementing SSl, managing files, and administrating databases rather easy.
We chose Apache because it handles dynamic content better than Nginx and it's very well supported. Nginx does handle high traffic sites better, but most of our sites do not get thousands of visitors or more a day as we are a small company serving niche markets. It is notable that you can use Apache and Nginx in tandem, serving static content with Nginx and then handling additional requests with Apache.