OpenLiteSpeed VS Nginx honest comparison.

There is a lot of debate within the community about these web servers, both containing there own benefits and downsides which I will cover here.

Features

Let’s explore the different features of the two web servers.

OpenLiteSpeed

• Has a web GUI for configuration (all settings can be configured here)
• Configurations made easy for non-technical users via there web GUI
• Lower server costs due to minimal resource usage
• Easy to configure security rules for anti-ddos and anti-bots protection.

Nginx

• Faster performance when cache is disabled (There is no reason you would ever want to disable cache anyway)
• Configuration using config files
• Good enterprise services available and support

Looking at these features, overall OpenLiteSpeed wins for there wide base of features built in and the overall ease of use for non-technical users who are not experienced with the command line. But what about performance, let’s get some metrics.

Installs

OpenLiteSpeed

Installing OpenLiteSpeed is as easy as running this script:
bash <( curl -k https://raw.githubusercontent.com/litespeedtech/ols1clk/master/ols1clk.sh )

Nginx

Installing Nginx is as easy as running this script:
sudo apt install nginx

Performance

Nginx

OpenLiteSpeed

These results so show OpenLiteSpeed as the winner by a tiny amount, but when looking side by side they do perform pretty similar.

DDoS Protection

Both OpenLiteSpeed and Nginx have built in DDoS protection features:

• Global ReCaptcha Support (Installed externally on Nginx but built in on OpenLiteSpeed)
• Worker Settings for connections
• Rate limit settings Both withstand pretty well against attacks (with cache enabled or not) but personally I would suggest setting up something like CloudFlare or some DDoS protection service for your site to take the load of your server.

Final verdict

The final verdict, this all comes down to personal preference some users will prefer the web GUI but others will prefer using the command line. They both have compelling features, great support and community forums. When choosing your first webserver, I would personally suggest using OpenLiteSpeed it’s very easy to install, easy to setup with great documentation and has most features built in to the dashboard.