In hardware terms, a web server is a computer that stores web server software and a website’s component files such as HTML documents, images, CSS and JavaScript files. A web server connects to the Internet and supports physical data interchange with other devices connected to the web.
The purpose of this roundup is to focus on web servers that are designed for mostly static content. For example, these types of web server are well placed to serve the content of a ftp server via http.
The developers of static web servers often believe most of the web does not need to be dynamic and increasing complexity on server-side applications is one of the main reasons for the web obesity crisis.
Here’s our verdict captured in a legendary LinuxLinks-style ratings chart. Only free and open source software is included.
Let’s explore the static web servers.
| Static Web Servers | |
|---|---|
| miniserve | CLI tool to serve files and dirs over HTTP |
| serve | Static file serving and directory listing |
| binserve | Fast production-ready static web server |
| Superstatic | Enhanced static web server |
| darkhttpd | A simple web server written in C; only serves static content |
| simple-http-server | Simple static file server written in Rust |
| Static Web Server | High-performance and asynchronous web server |
| webfs | Simple http server for mostly static content. |
| quark | Small and simple HTTP GET/HEAD-only web server for static content |
| Websitino | Lightweight static file server for local development |
| static-file-server | Tiny, simple static file server |
If you’re looking for full-blown web servers, they are explored in a separate article.
This article has been updated to reflect the changes outlined in our recent announcement.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |
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