The best web servers for Linux are Apache and nginx. Web server programs respond to incoming requests from your computer and serve up the correct web page or resource, so it’s important to pick one that fits your needs. Some things to consider include how popular the server is and how fast it loads websites, how customizable it is, and whether it has any security features like strong authentication or encryption.This article also discuss best web server for linux and best web server software

Best Web Server for Linux is chosen for stability, efficiency and ease of use. If you are using a web server on Linux server or desktop computer, then this article will help you to choose the best Web Server software.

best web server for linux

1. Ubuntu Server

Best Linux server distro for scalability

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REASONS TO BUY

Long Term Support+

WireGuard VPN+

Paid enterprise support

REASONS TO AVOID

No GUI (graphical user interface)

While Ubuntu is best known for bringing desktop Linux to the masses, its server variant is also extremely competitive. 

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has developed LTS (Long Term Support) versions of Ubuntu Server, which like the desktop flavor can be updated up to five years after the date of release, saving you the trouble of upgrading your server repeatedly. Canonical also periodically releases versions of Ubuntu Server at the same time as the latest desktop distro.

One of the highlights of more recent releases is the inclusion of the popular virtual private network (VPN) WireGuard, which is now included by default in the Linux kernel starting.

If you’re intent on building your own cloud platform, you can also download Ubuntu Cloud Server. Canonical claims that over 55% of OpenStack clouds already run on Ubuntu. For a fee, Canonical will even set up a managed OpenStack cloud(opens in new tab) for you.

2. Debian

Great Linux server distro with multi-architectural support

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REASONS TO BUY

Focus on stability+

Long established+

Exceptionally secure

REASONS TO AVOID

–

No official support team

Debian is over 20-years-old and in part owes that longevity to the emphasis placed on producing a stable operating system. This is crucial if you want to set up a server as updates can sometimes clash badly with existing software.

There are three branches of Debian, named ‘Unstable’, ‘Testing’, and ‘Stable’. To become part of the Stable current release, packages must have been reviewed for several months as part of the Testing release. This results in a much more reliable system – but don’t expect Debian to incorporate much ‘bleeding edge’ software as a result. 

Debian is available in several variants. You can install Debian over the Internet using the minimal Network Boot Image(opens in new tab), which you can use to build your server from the grounds-up. There’s also a Cloud Image(opens in new tab) that you can deploy on any of the supported cloud providers including Amazon EC2, Azure, OpenStack, and others.

Read our full Debian review.

3. OpenSUSE

Best Linux server distro for long-term support

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REASONS TO BUY

+

Multiple release models+

Atomic updates+

Well documented

REASONS TO AVOID

Poor media support

OpenSUSE is one of the most underrated server distros. Besides the regular release called Leap, OpenSUSE also produces a rolling release version named Tumbleweed.

Thanks to its stability, many users prefer running servers atop OpenSUSE Leap. The distro is available as a minimal network image that fetches packages from the Internet, as well as a heavier DVD image, which includes all the packages. 

The distro doesn’t produce a separate image for server installation. Instead its installer offers the option to install a server. Furthermore, you can also easily setup your OpenSUSE server with a read-only root partition and transactional updates by choosing the Transactional Server option.

The highlights of the distro are the YaST Control Center and the Zypper package manager, which will help you with the administration and management of your installation. The distro is also well documented, with adequate avenues of support.

Read our full OpenSUSE review.

4. Fedora Server

Best Linux server distro for fast-moving tech adoption

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REASONS TO BUY

Authentication credentials+

Management toolkit+

Modular packages

REASONS TO AVOID

–

Long setup time

Fedora is a community developed distro that serves as the testbed for the commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) distro. Fedora Server is a special implementation of the OS that is tailored to help you deploy and manage a server installation either on bare metal or on the cloud.

To that end, the distro produces installation images for 64-bit machines and for ARM servers, as well as a range of images for various cloud environments including Openstack, Vagrant, the Amazon Public Cloud, and many more. 

Fedora Server includes FreeIPA(opens in new tab), which enables you to manage authentication credentials, access control information and perform auditing from one central location. The highlight of the distro is that it groups certain packages as modules, which are available in streams that you can run across different versions for a consistent environment.

5. Fedora CoreOS

Best Linux server distro for running containerized workloads

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REASONS TO BUY

Auto-updates+

Supports multiple cloud platforms+

Multiple development streams

REASONS TO AVOID

No package manager

The second Fedora-labelled distro in our list, Fedora CoreOS is designed specifically to run containers. It describes itself as an automatically-updating, minimal operating system for running containerized workloads securely and at scale.

Red Hat, Fedora’s corporate overlords, has been participating in several open source projects that were working for creating container-optimized environments. It acquired CoreOS in 2018 and soon Fedora CoreOS emerged as the purpose-build distro for container deployments. 

Fedora CoreOS ships with both docker and podman installed and is available in three different release streams, Stable, Testing and Next. All streams release various images. Besides the images for bare metal and various virtualized environments, you also get cloud launchable images for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), along with images for all the popular cloud operators such as Azure, OpenStack, Vultr, DigitalOcean, and more.

More Linux server distros to consider

There are a small number of Linux distros commonly used for internet servers, and although we’ve covered the main contenders above, there are a couple more definitely worth considering according to your circumstances:

Red Hat(opens in new tab) is the big brother to Fedora and CentOS, designed specifically for commercial deployment in enterprise environments. It’s still open source but requires a proprietary licence for use. Red Hat have been established for a long time, and while licencing fees might put some people off, a lot of businesses equate that with a guarantee of support, reliability, and quality.

FreeBSD(opens in new tab) isn’t technically Linux as much as a Unix-powered operating system, but will sometimes be offered by hosting companies as a server option in powering a LAMP configuration alongside various Linux distros. While Linux relies on a lot of third-party development for software utilities, FreeBSD comes as a complete set which gives it a reputation for being especially secure and stable.

CloudLinux(opens in new tab) is a distro of specifically built for virtualized cloud operations to power shared hosting services, by allocating and limiting server resources to each tenant. Additionally, each tenant is partition from each other, in other to create a more secure environment. The result is a hosting platform that has built in redundancy, stability, and security, in order to provide a better hosting environment.

linux web server software

Apache is the most commonly used Web server on Linux systems. Web servers are used to serve Web pages requested by client computers. Clients typically request and view Web pages using Web browser applications such as Firefox, Opera, Chromium, or Internet Explorer.

Users enter a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to point to a Web server by means of its Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) and a path to the required resource. For example, to view the home page of the Ubuntu Web site a user will enter only the FQDN:

www.ubuntu.com

To view the community sub-page, a user will enter the FQDN followed by a path:

www.ubuntu.com/community

The most common protocol used to transfer Web pages is the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Protocols such as Hyper Text Transfer Protocol over Secure Sockets Layer (HTTPS), and File Transfer Protocol (FTP), a protocol for uploading and downloading files, are also supported.

Apache Web Servers are often used in combination with the MySQL database engine, the HyperText Preprocessor (PHP) scripting language, and other popular scripting languages such as Python and Perl. This configuration is termed LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and Perl/Python/PHP) and forms a powerful and robust platform for the development and deployment of Web-based applications.

Installation

The Apache2 web server is available in Ubuntu Linux. To install Apache2:

At a terminal prompt enter the following command:

sudo apt install apache2

Configuration

Apache2 is configured by placing directives in plain text configuration files. These directives are separated between the following files and directories:

• apache2.conf: the main Apache2 configuration file. Contains settings that are global to Apache2.
• httpd.conf: historically the main Apache2 configuration file, named after the httpd daemon. In other distributions (or older versions of Ubuntu), the file might be present. In Ubuntu, all configuration options have been moved to apache2.conf and the below referenced directories, and this file no longer exists.
• conf-available: this directory contains available configuration files. All files that were previously in /etc/apache2/conf.d should be moved to /etc/apache2/conf-available.
• conf-enabled: holds symlinks to the files in /etc/apache2/conf-available. When a configuration file is symlinked, it will be enabled the next time apache2 is restarted.
• envvars: file where Apache2 environment variables are set.
• mods-available: this directory contains configuration files to both load modules and configure them. Not all modules will have specific configuration files, however.
• mods-enabled: holds symlinks to the files in /etc/apache2/mods-available. When a module configuration file is symlinked it will be enabled the next time apache2 is restarted.
• ports.conf: houses the directives that determine which TCP ports Apache2 is listening on.
• sites-available: this directory has configuration files for Apache2 Virtual Hosts. Virtual Hosts allow Apache2 to be configured for multiple sites that have separate configurations.
• sites-enabled: like mods-enabled, sites-enabled contains symlinks to the /etc/apache2/sites-available directory. Similarly when a configuration file in sites-available is symlinked, the site configured by it will be active once Apache2 is restarted.

best web server software

1. Apache. Apache is the second most popular web server software, used by 31.5 percent of all known websites. …
2. Tomcat. Tomcat is one of the best web server software options for Java applications. …
3. NGINX. …
4. LiteSpeed. …
5. CentOS Stream. …
6. Caddy. …
7. Lighttpd. …
8. Microsoft IIS.