Customisation

Adding and enabling modules and custom directory options.

Since most websites will use a server-side language, such as a WordPress installation or basic code to handle a contact form from HTML, let’s have a look at how easy that is to implement.

Extending web servers is easier with some than others. However, from a simplicity standpoint, both Apache and Lighttpd make it very easy to check modules and enable them as needed. For example, one such module that is not enabled by default in Apache is mod_cache. Nginx, on the contrary does offer plenty from the first go, but single commands to enable and disable them are not part of the program. With Nginx, adding and configuring modules runs beyond novice usage.

Openlitespeed is not as straightforward as Apache or Lighttpd either, but they both can at least be added to with somewhat simple commands for more intermediate users.

Aside from adding modules to a server, there will come a time when we want to edit the server configuration files themselves or add files to folders for which we can make custom configurations, such as within an .htaccess file. Apache and Tomcat make such configurations very easy since we can add an .htaccess file to any folder and make custom rules, browser caching, and so on. Meanwhile, Openlitespeed has methods for which we can migrate our old .htaccess from Apache into its own system and use the same rewrite rules, which eases transistion from an old Apache server.

Lighttpd had its own way of creating custom files in its own lighttpd.conf. With Nginx and Lighttpd, most custom rules will take place in configuration files. VERDICT Apache 10/ 10 Tomcat 9/ 10 Nginx 8/10 Openlitespeed 9/ 10

Lighttpd 8/ 10

Apache is very flexible since we can make server rules with a single .htaccess file and enable and disable modules with one-line commands.