Compare Engines

At a Glance

	Apache httpd	Stock OLS	LiteHTTPD	LSWS Enterprise
Price	Free	Free	Free	From $0 (1 domain)
License	Apache 2.0	GPLv3	GPLv3	Proprietary
Source Code	Open	Open	Open	Closed
.htaccess Support	Full	Partial	90%+	Full
Architecture	Process-per-connection	Event-driven	Event-driven	Event-driven

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.htaccess Directive Support

Directive Category	Apache	Stock OLS	LiteHTTPD	LSWS
Header set/unset/append	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Require all denied	Yes	No (returns 200)	Yes	Yes
Options -Indexes	Yes	No (returns 404)	Yes	Yes
FilesMatch ACL	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
AuthType Basic	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
RewriteRule [R=301]	Yes	No (returns 404)	Yes	Yes
ExpiresByType	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes
If/ElseIf/Else	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
php_value/php_flag	Yes	No	Yes (patch)	Yes
ErrorDocument	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
SetEnv/SetEnvIf	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
AddType/ForceType	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes

Note

Stock OLS processes .htaccess files for RewriteRule only (via RewriteFile). It does not execute ACL, Header, Expires, or authentication directives. This means security-critical rules like Require all denied silently fail (return 200 instead of 403).

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Performance (4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, AlmaLinux 9)

Static File Throughput (Requests/sec)

Scenario	Apache	LiteHTTPD	Stock OLS	LSWS
No .htaccess	11,082	22,104	23,242	24,786
Simple .htaccess (4 lines)	13,020	37,038	75,908	83,779
Complex .htaccess (~20 lines)	12,700	34,115	80,413	78,458
WordPress .htaccess (~200 lines)	10,618	21,960	18,883	20,306

Caution

Stock OLS and LSWS show higher RPS on simple/complex .htaccess because they do not actually execute the ACL/Header directives. Their security rules silently fail.

.htaccess Parsing Overhead

Engine	No .htaccess	200-line .htaccess	Overhead
Apache	11,082	10,618	-4.2%
LiteHTTPD	22,104	21,960	-0.7%
Stock OLS	23,242	18,883	-18.8%
LSWS	24,786	20,306	-18.1%

Resource Usage

Metric	Apache	LiteHTTPD	Stock OLS	LSWS
Baseline memory	969 MB	676 MB	663 MB	819 MB
Module overhead	—	+13 MB	—	+156 MB
Peak CPU (static)	98.5%	66.0%	48.1%	38.8%
RPS per CPU%	525	1,324	1,890	1,265

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Security Feature Comparison

Feature	Apache	Stock OLS	LiteHTTPD	LSWS
.htaccess ACL enforcement	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
.htpasswd protection	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
FilesMatch deny	Yes	No (200)	Yes (403)	Yes
Directory listing control	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Path traversal defense	Yes	OLS engine	Module + OLS	Yes
ModSecurity	mod_security	OLS module	OLS module	Built-in
Anti-DDoS	External	Limited	Via OLS	Built-in
Brute force protection	External	No	Built-in	Built-in

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When to Choose Each Engine

Use Case	Recommended
Maximum Apache compatibility, existing infrastructure	Apache httpd
High performance with full .htaccess, free license	LiteHTTPD
Minimal OLS without .htaccess needs	Stock OLS
Enterprise support, cPanel/Plesk integration	LSWS Enterprise
Budget-conscious WordPress hosting	LiteHTTPD
Migrating from Apache to OLS	LiteHTTPD
Replacing paid LSWS license	LiteHTTPD
Docker/container environments where OLS binary cannot be replaced	LiteHTTPD-Thin

Note

LiteHTTPD data in the tables above represents the Full edition (installed via openlitespeed-litehttpd RPM). LiteHTTPD-Thin provides the same performance but without RewriteRule execution or php_value support, as it runs on stock OLS without patches.