I'm looking for the fastest http server available for:
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serving static content — huge set of large images. Minimal features need, just as fast as possible.
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dispatching dynamic content plugins — think a web server that does on-the-fly watermarking or image transcoding. I'm looking for the fastest, lowest-overhead way of dispatching this.
Environment: linux or OS/X. any language acceptable.
Best Answer
nginx is the current favored choice. LigHTTPd still works fine, but is less actively developed nowadays. LiteSpeed is also a good choice, and may be the best if you want commercial support or a nicer GUI. All of these are very fast, raw speed will not be a meaningful competitive differentiator within this group of webservers.
Hmnn, a custom extension module to nginx is the lowest overhead option. But writing modules in C / C++ is seriously time-consuming. OP says "any language acceptable", well, if that is so then nginx with a C extension, or maybe Apache with a C extension to benefit from Apache's richer set of modules and documentation.
But realistically, who writes C code today for non-mass-market products? I would consider Python code with Tornado, or a similar event-driven webserver in a high-level language to be a better match.