Editions

LiteHTTPD comes in two editions. Both are free and open source.

Comparison

	LiteHTTPD-Thin	LiteHTTPD-Full
What it is	litehttpd_htaccess.so module only	Module + Patched OpenLiteSpeed
Install on	Stock (unmodified) OLS	One RPM from rpms.litehttpd.com
Install time	1 minute (copy .so)	~1 minute via RPM repo
OLS binary	Unchanged	Replaced with patched version (module bundled)

Feature Comparison

Feature	LiteHTTPD-Thin	LiteHTTPD-Full
Header set/unset/append/merge/add/edit	Yes	Yes
Require all/ip/env, Order/Allow/Deny	Yes	Yes
AuthType Basic + AuthUserFile	Yes	Yes
FilesMatch, Files, Limit/LimitExcept	Yes	Yes
If/ElseIf/Else conditionals	Yes	Yes
Redirect, RedirectMatch	Yes	Yes
ErrorDocument	Yes	Yes
ExpiresActive/ExpiresByType/ExpiresDefault	Yes	Yes
AddType/ForceType/AddCharset/AddDefaultCharset	Yes	Yes
SetEnv/SetEnvIf/BrowserMatch	Yes	Yes
DirectoryIndex	Yes	Yes
LSBruteForceProtection	Yes	Yes
Options -Indexes (module-level)	Yes	Yes
RewriteRule execution	Parsed only	Full execution
php_value / php_flag	Parsed only	Passed to lsphp
Options -Indexes (engine-level 403)	Module fallback	Native 403
Apache config auto-convert	Manual	Automatic at startup

When to Use Each Edition

LiteHTTPD-Thin

Best for:

• Adding security headers, ACL, and caching to stock OLS
• Sites that do not need RewriteRule in .htaccess (WordPress rewrite handled by OLS native RewriteFile)
• Quick evaluation without rebuilding OLS
• Docker/container environments using official OLS images
• Hosting providers who cannot modify the OLS binary

Limitations:

• RewriteRule [R=301,L] in .htaccess will be parsed but not executed. OLS falls back to native RewriteFile processing, which handles basic WordPress permalinks but not advanced redirect rules.
• php_value and php_flag are parsed but have no effect on lsphp.

LiteHTTPD-Full

Best for:

• Full Apache-to-OLS migration with 90%+ compatibility
• WordPress sites with plugins that write RewriteRule redirects (Redirection, Yoast, Rank Math)
• Sites using php_value for per-directory PHP configuration
• Production hosting replacing Apache or LSWS Enterprise

Includes 4 patches applied to OLS source:

• Patch 0001 (PHPConfig): Enables php_value/php_flag via LSIAPI
• Patch 0002 (Rewrite): Enables full RewriteRule execution with [R=301,L,QSA,F,G] flags
• Patch 0003 (readApacheConf): Auto-converts Apache httpd.conf at OLS startup
• Patch 0004 (autoIndex): Returns 403 for Options -Indexes at engine level

Installation

LiteHTTPD-Thin

# Copy module to stock OLS
cp litehttpd_htaccess.so /usr/local/lsws/modules/

# Enable module
echo 'module litehttpd_htaccess { ls_enabled 1 }' >> /usr/local/lsws/conf/httpd_config.conf

# Restart
/usr/local/lsws/bin/lswsctrl restart

LiteHTTPD-Full (RPM repo — recommended)

# Add repo and install (patched OLS + bundled module)
curl -s https://rpms.litehttpd.com/setup.sh | bash
dnf install openlitespeed-litehttpd
systemctl restart lsws

LiteHTTPD-Full (from source)

See Building from Source and Patches.