Top 10 Best Open Source Web Servers for Linux / Windows

Apache HTTP Web Server is one of the oldest and most popular web servers released back in 1995. It is a free and open source software maintained and developed by the Apache Software Foundation. As per the stats, around 34.1% of web applications and websites run on the Apache webserver. Apache software accepts directory (HTTP) requests from varied internet users and shares back the requested data in the form of files and Web pages.

It is one of the fastest, reliable, and secure web servers customized to handle heavy traffic with minimal configuration. The software is written in C language and is compatible with any operating system like Linux, Apache Windows, Novell Netware, Mac OS X, Solaris, OS/2, Unix-like, FreeBSD, etc. Apache software shares the requested information from the server to the client through the HTTP protocol.

The open source infrastructure further helps developers to view and collaborate the source code. Additionally, there are plenty of Apache modules that aid the server administrators to extend their features, turn on and off the extra functionalities. For the configuration of these modules, you will require access to .htaccess. mod_fcgid, mod_ftp, mod_domain, mod_mbox, mod_pop3, mod_arm4, mod_smtpd and Sandbox are some of the modules of Apache HTTP Server. The software also includes additional features in external extension modules like mod_gzip. This module can help reduce Web pages size that is served over HTTP. Similarly, ModSecurity, another module, helps manage intrusion detection for Web applications.