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  5. Apache HTTP Server vs PythonAnywhere vs SignalR

Apache HTTP Server vs PythonAnywhere vs SignalR

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Apache HTTP Server
Apache HTTP Server
Stacks64.5K
Followers22.8K
Votes1.4K
GitHub Stars3.8K
Forks1.2K
SignalR
SignalR
Stacks656
Followers1.2K
Votes146
GitHub Stars9.3K
Forks2.3K
PythonAnywhere
PythonAnywhere
Stacks90
Followers293
Votes64

Apache HTTP Server vs PythonAnywhere vs SignalR: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Apache HTTP Server, PythonAnywhere, and SignalR

In the world of web development, there are several tools and technologies available to help build and deploy web applications. Three popular options are Apache HTTP Server, PythonAnywhere, and SignalR. While all three can be used to serve web content and facilitate communication, they have some key differences. Let's explore these differences below:

  1. Technology Stack: Apache HTTP Server is primarily a web server software that serves static content, while PythonAnywhere offers a web application hosting platform with support for Python-based applications. On the other hand, SignalR is a real-time web communication library for building interactive web applications.

  2. Server Configuration: Apache HTTP Server uses configuration files (usually in the form of Apache configuration files or .htaccess files) to control various server behaviors and settings. PythonAnywhere, on the other hand, provides a web-based control panel and a user-friendly interface to configure server settings and manage applications. Similarly, SignalR requires server-side configuration to enable real-time communication between clients and the server.

  3. Supported Programming Languages: Apache HTTP Server is language-agnostic and can serve content written in various programming languages. PythonAnywhere, as the name suggests, is primarily geared towards hosting Python applications, although it also supports other languages to some extent. Meanwhile, SignalR is built on top of .NET technology and can be used with .NET languages such as C#.

  4. Real-time Communication: While both Apache HTTP Server and PythonAnywhere can handle requests and serve content, they do not inherently provide real-time communication capabilities. SignalR, on the other hand, is specifically designed for building real-time web applications, enabling bidirectional communication between clients and the server.

  5. Deployment and Scalability: Apache HTTP Server can be installed on a dedicated server, a virtual private server (VPS), or a cloud platform, allowing for deployment flexibility. PythonAnywhere offers a cloud-based hosting platform, simplifying the deployment process. SignalR can be used as a self-hosted library within a .NET application or deployed on a web server and scaled horizontally to handle more concurrent connections.

  6. Community and Support: Apache HTTP Server has a large and active open-source community, with a rich set of documentation, forums, and resources available. PythonAnywhere also has a supportive community and provides various resources to help users. SignalR, being an official Microsoft technology, has strong support from Microsoft and the .NET community, with ample documentation and community resources available.

In Summary, Apache HTTP Server is a versatile web server software, PythonAnywhere is a user-friendly web hosting platform primarily for Python applications, while SignalR is a real-time web communication library for building interactive web applications.

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Advice on Apache HTTP Server, SignalR, PythonAnywhere

Hari
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
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
Grant
Grant

Developer at GMS LLC

Sep 5, 2020

Decided
  • Server rendered HTML output from PHP is being migrated to the client as Vue.js components, future plans to provide additional content, and other new miscellaneous features all result in a substantial increase of static files needing to be served from the server. NGINX has better performance than Apache for serving static content.
  • The change to NGINX will require switching from PHP to PHP-FPM resulting in a distributed architecture with a higher complexity configuration, but this is outweighed by PHP-FPM being faster than PHP for processing requests.
  • The NGINX + PHP-FPM setup now allows for horizontally scaling of resources rather vertically scaling the previously combined Apache + PHP resources.
  • PHP shell tasks can now efficiently be decoupled from the application reducing main application footprint and allow for scaling of tasks on an individual basis.
429k views429k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Apache HTTP Server
Apache HTTP Server
SignalR
SignalR
PythonAnywhere
PythonAnywhere

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.

SignalR allows bi-directional communication between server and client. Servers can now push content to connected clients instantly as it becomes available. SignalR supports Web Sockets, and falls back to other compatible techniques for older browsers. SignalR includes APIs for connection management (for instance, connect and disconnect events), grouping connections, and authorization.

It's somewhat unique. A small PaaS that supports web apps (Python only) as well as scheduled jobs with shell access. It is an expensive way to tinker and run several small apps.

Statistics
GitHub Stars
3.8K
GitHub Stars
9.3K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
1.2K
GitHub Forks
2.3K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
64.5K
Stacks
656
Stacks
90
Followers
22.8K
Followers
1.2K
Followers
293
Votes
1.4K
Votes
146
Votes
64
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
  • 32
    Supports .NET server
  • 25
    Real-time
  • 18
    Free
  • 16
    Fallback to SSE, forever frame, long polling
  • 15
    WebSockets
Cons
  • 2
    Expertise hard to get
  • 2
    Requires jQuery
  • 1
    Big differences between ASP.NET and Core versions
  • 1
    Weak iOS and Android support
Pros
  • 15
    Web apps
  • 11
    Easy Setup
  • 8
    Free plan
  • 8
    Great support
  • 8
    Shell access
Cons
  • 1
    No root access
  • 1
    Really small community
Integrations
No integrations available
.NET
.NET
Python
Python

What are some alternatives to Apache HTTP Server, SignalR, PythonAnywhere?

NGINX

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.

Heroku

Heroku

Heroku is a cloud application platform – a new way of building and deploying web apps. Heroku lets app developers spend 100% of their time on their application code, not managing servers, deployment, ongoing operations, or scaling.

Firebase

Firebase

Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications. Simply add the Firebase library to your application to gain access to a shared data structure; any changes you make to that data are automatically synchronized with the Firebase cloud and with other clients within milliseconds.

Clever Cloud

Clever Cloud

Clever Cloud is a polyglot cloud application platform. The service helps developers to build applications with many languages and services, with auto-scaling features and a true pay-as-you-go pricing model.

Socket.IO

Socket.IO

It enables real-time bidirectional event-based communication. It works on every platform, browser or device, focusing equally on reliability and speed.

Google App Engine

Google App Engine

Google has a reputation for highly reliable, high performance infrastructure. With App Engine you can take advantage of the 10 years of knowledge Google has in running massively scalable, performance driven systems. App Engine applications are easy to build, easy to maintain, and easy to scale as your traffic and data storage needs grow.

Red Hat OpenShift

Red Hat OpenShift

OpenShift is Red Hat's Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering. OpenShift is an application platform in the cloud where application developers and teams can build, test, deploy, and run their applications.

Unicorn

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.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Once you upload your application, Elastic Beanstalk automatically handles the deployment details of capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling, and application health monitoring.

PubNub

PubNub

PubNub makes it easy for you to add real-time capabilities to your apps, without worrying about the infrastructure. Build apps that allow your users to engage in real-time across mobile, browser, desktop and server.

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