Overview

Apache HTTP Server

Stacks64.9K

Followers22.8K

Votes1.4K

GitHub Stars3.8K

Forks1.2K

Microsoft IIS

Stacks15.6K

Followers7.7K

Votes236

Apache HTTP Server vs Microsoft IIS: What are the differences?

# Introduction

1. **Scalability**: One key difference between Apache HTTP Server and Microsoft IIS is in terms of scalability. Apache is known for its ability to handle a large number of requests efficiently, making it a preferred choice for high traffic websites. On the other hand, IIS is considered to be more suitable for smaller to medium-sized websites due to its limitations in handling a high volume of requests.

2. **Operating System Compatibility**: Another significant difference between the two web servers is their compatibility with different operating systems. Apache HTTP Server is known for its cross-platform support, working seamlessly on various operating systems such as Unix, Linux, Windows, and more. In contrast, Microsoft IIS is primarily designed for Windows operating systems, making it a popular choice for organizations that use Windows servers.

3. **Configuration Management**: Apache HTTP Server is known for its flexibility and extensive configuration options using text-based configuration files. This allows users to customize and fine-tune the server settings according to their specific needs. In comparison, Microsoft IIS offers a user-friendly graphical interface for configuration management, making it easier for users who prefer a more visual approach to server configuration.

4. **Open Source vs. Proprietary**: Apache HTTP Server is an open-source software maintained by the Apache Software Foundation, which means it is free to use, modify, and distribute. On the other hand, Microsoft IIS is a proprietary web server developed by Microsoft and requires a license to use in a production environment. This difference in licensing models can influence the choice of web server depending on the organization's budget and preferences.

5. **Support for Technologies**: Apache HTTP Server is known for its strong support for a wide range of programming languages and technologies, making it a versatile choice for hosting different types of websites and applications. In contrast, Microsoft IIS offers tighter integration with Microsoft technologies such as .NET framework, ASP.NET, and Microsoft SQL Server, making it a preferred option for organizations that heavily rely on Microsoft technologies for their web development.

6. **Security Features**: When it comes to security, both Apache HTTP Server and Microsoft IIS provide robust security features to protect websites from various threats. However, IIS is often perceived to have tighter integration with Windows security features such as Active Directory, making it a preferred choice for organizations looking for seamless integration with their existing Windows security infrastructure.

In Summary, the key differences between Apache HTTP Server and Microsoft IIS lie in their scalability, operating system compatibility, configuration management, licensing models, support for technologies, and security features.

Advice on Apache HTTP Server, Microsoft IIS

Daniel

Co-Founder at Polpo Data Analytics & Software Development

May 25, 2021

Decided

For us, NGINX is a lite HTTP server easy to configure. On our research, we found a well-documented software we a lot of support from the community.

We have been using it alongside tools like certbot and it has been a total success.

We can easily configure our sites and have a folder for available vs enabled sites, and with the nginx -t command we can easily check everything is running fine.

289k views289k

Comments

Hari

Mar 3, 2020

Needs advice

I was in a situation where I have to configure 40 RHEL servers 20 each for Apache HTTP Server and Tomcat server. My task was to 1. configure LVM with required logical volumes, format and mount for HTTP and Tomcat servers accordingly. 2. Install apache and tomcat. 3. Generate and apply selfsigned certs to http server. 4. Modify default ports on Tomcat to different ports. 5. Create users on RHEL for application support team. 6. other administrative tasks like, start, stop and restart HTTP and Tomcat services.

I have utilized the power of ansible for all these tasks, which made it easy and manageable.

419k views419k

Comments

greg00m

Mar 9, 2020

Needs advice

I am diving into web development, both front and back end. I feel comfortable with administration, scripting and moderate coding in bash, Python and C++, but I am also a Windows fan (i love inner conflict). What are the votes on web servers? IIS is expensive and restrictive (has Windows adoption of open source changed this?) Apache has the history but seems to be at the root of most of my Infosec issues, and I know nothing about nginx (is it too new to rely on?). And no, I don't know what I want to do on the web explicitly, but hosting and data storage (both cloud and tape) are possibilities. Ready, aim fire!

766k views766k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Apache HTTP Server	Microsoft IIS
The Apache HTTP Server is a powerful and flexible HTTP/1.1 compliant web server. Originally designed as a replacement for the NCSA HTTP Server, it has grown to be the most popular web server on the Internet.	Internet Information Services (IIS) for Windows Server is a flexible, secure and manageable Web server for hosting anything on the Web. From media streaming to web applications, IIS's scalable and open architecture is ready to handle the most demanding tasks.
Statistics
GitHub Stars 3.8K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 1.2K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 64.9K	Stacks 15.6K
Followers 22.8K	Followers 7.7K
Votes 1.4K	Votes 236
Pros & Cons
Pros 479 Web server 305 Most widely-used web server 217 Virtual hosting 148 Fast 138 Ssl support Cons 4 Hard to set up	Pros 83 Great with .net 55 I'm forced to use iis 27 Use nginx 18 Azure integration 15 Best for ms technologyes ms bullshit Cons 1 Hard to set up

What are some alternatives to Apache HTTP Server, Microsoft IIS?

NGINX

nginx [engine x] is an HTTP and reverse proxy server, as well as a mail proxy server, written by Igor Sysoev. According to Netcraft nginx served or proxied 30.46% of the top million busiest sites in Jan 2018.

Unicorn

Unicorn is an HTTP server for Rack applications designed to only serve fast clients on low-latency, high-bandwidth connections and take advantage of features in Unix/Unix-like kernels. Slow clients should only be served by placing a reverse proxy capable of fully buffering both the the request and response in between Unicorn and slow clients.

Apache Tomcat

Apache Tomcat powers numerous large-scale, mission-critical web applications across a diverse range of industries and organizations.

Passenger

Phusion Passenger is a web server and application server, designed to be fast, robust and lightweight. It takes a lot of complexity out of deploying web apps, adds powerful enterprise-grade features that are useful in production, and makes administration much easier and less complex.

Gunicorn

Gunicorn is a pre-fork worker model ported from Ruby's Unicorn project. The Gunicorn server is broadly compatible with various web frameworks, simply implemented, light on server resources, and fairly speedy.

Jetty

Jetty is used in a wide variety of projects and products, both in development and production. Jetty can be easily embedded in devices, tools, frameworks, application servers, and clusters. See the Jetty Powered page for more uses of Jetty.

lighttpd

lighttpd has a very low memory footprint compared to other webservers and takes care of cpu-load. Its advanced feature-set (FastCGI, CGI, Auth, Output-Compression, URL-Rewriting and many more) make lighttpd the perfect webserver-software for every server that suffers load problems.

Swoole

It is an open source high-performance network framework using an event-driven, asynchronous, non-blocking I/O model which makes it scalable and efficient.

Puma

Unlike other Ruby Webservers, Puma was built for speed and parallelism. Puma is a small library that provides a very fast and concurrent HTTP 1.1 server for Ruby web applications.