A LiteSpeed server is the software that delivers your website to its visitors. It does the same job as Apache and NGINX, but delivers pages faster and uses fewer of the server's resources. That's why every website we host runs on LiteSpeed technology.
In this post, we explain what a web server is, why we chose LiteSpeed, and what it means for speed and visibility in Google.
What Is a Web Server?
A web server is a program that runs on a server. When you open a website, your browser sends a request to the server. The web server finds the files and sends them back to you. The faster this happens, the faster you see the page.
Apache, NGINX and LiteSpeed are the best-known web servers. They solve the same task in different ways, and the difference is most noticeable when many people visit the site at the same time.
What Is LiteSpeed?
LiteSpeed is a web server from the American company LiteSpeed Technologies. It was launched in 2003 as a faster alternative to Apache. As of September 13, 2026, LiteSpeed is used by 14.6 percent of all websites where the web server is known, according to W3Techs. Ahead of it are NGINX with 31.0 percent, Cloudflare with 30.6 and Apache with 22.1.
That makes LiteSpeed the fourth most used web server in the world. Its share has hovered around 15 percent through 2026, and much of the usage comes from WordPress sites and online stores that need speed.
Why the Web Server Matters for SEO
Google uses page speed as one of many ranking factors. Your content matters most, but when two pages are roughly equally good, the fastest one often wins. If you want to learn the basics first, you can read more about what search engine optimization is.
The server particularly affects three things:
Response time (TTFB). TTFB is the time from when the browser asks the server to when the first response arrives. Google considers a response time under 0.8 seconds to be good. Above 1.8 seconds is considered poor, according to web.dev. A fast web server with good caching makes it easy to stay well below the limit.
Core Web Vitals. Google measures how real users experience the page through the metrics LCP, INP and CLS. The server primarily affects LCP, meaning how quickly the main content is displayed. A slow server gives slow LCP, no matter how well the rest is optimized.
Stable operation. Uptime is not a ranking factor on its own. However, if the site is down for a long period, it can drop out of the search results. A server that can handle traffic spikes removes that risk.
If you work actively on visibility, the server and SEO optimization are therefore closely connected.
Apache, NGINX and LiteSpeed Compared
Apache arrived in 1995 and was the standard on the web for a long time. It's free, flexible and supports .htaccess files, which let you control settings per website. The downside is that Apache uses a lot of memory and processing power as traffic increases. That's when pages become slow.
NGINX arrived in 2004 and was built to handle many visitors at once with little memory. Today it's the most used web server in the world. NGINX doesn't support .htaccess. All changes must be made in configuration files on the server. That works fine for developers but is cumbersome on regular web hosting.
LiteSpeed combines the best of both. It handles many simultaneous visits with low memory usage, just like NGINX. At the same time, it understands Apache's settings and .htaccess files. How much of that applies depends on which edition you run, and we come back to that under what we learned ourselves.
| Apache | NGINX | LiteSpeed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launched | 1995 | 2004 | 2003 |
| Price | Free | Free | Free (OpenLiteSpeed) or licensed (Enterprise) |
| Memory usage under high traffic | High | Low | Low |
| Supports .htaccess | Yes | No | Yes |
| Built-in page cache | No | Partial | Yes (LSCache) |
| HTTP/3 | No, requires add-on | Yes, in newer versions | Yes, built in and early adopter |
| Best for | Flexible setups | Static content and high traffic | WordPress, WooCommerce and PHP |
How Much Faster Is LiteSpeed?
LiteSpeed's own tests show that the server delivers WordPress pages up to 12 times faster than NGINX and 84 times faster than Apache. The figures apply with caching turned on, and they come from the manufacturer itself. The page is also marked as archived, so the test has not been rerun in years. Read such figures with a critical eye.
So we measured it ourselves. On September 13, 2026, we ran 200 requests with 10 concurrent visitors against two pages on mementor.no, from the server itself so the network does not interfere. The front page is served from the page cache. The search page is built by PHP on every request.
| Page | Response time, median | Requests per second |
|---|---|---|
| Front page, from cache | 3 ms | 1,312 |
| Search page, built by PHP | 130 ms | 69 |
Same server, same LiteSpeed. The difference is the cache: 19 times the capacity and 40 times lower response time. That is what the manufacturer's 12x figure is about, only measured on our own machine. On purely static files, NGINX and LiteSpeed are about equally fast. It is the pages that have to be built that the cache rescues.
In simple terms, this means: if you run WordPress or WooCommerce, LiteSpeed with caching is the fastest option available today.
LiteSpeed Cache Does the Biggest Job
Caching means the server stores a finished copy of the page. The next visitor gets the copy immediately, without the server having to rebuild the page. This cuts response time from seconds to milliseconds.
LiteSpeed has this cache built directly into the server. For WordPress, there's a free plugin called LiteSpeed Cache, which connects your website to the server cache. As of September 13, 2026, it has 7 million active installations and a rating of 4.8 out of 5 from 2,770 reviews on WordPress.org. Version 7.9.1 was released September 1 and is tested up to WordPress 7.1.
The plugin also works well with online stores. Shopping cart and stock status are kept up to date, even though the rest of the site is served from cache. This is one of the reasons we recommend LiteSpeed for anyone running a WooCommerce online store.
HTTP/3 and QUIC
LiteSpeed was among the very first web servers with full support for HTTP/3 and QUIC. These are newer rules for how data is sent over the network. They provide faster loading and more stable transfer, especially on mobile networks with varying coverage.
It's important to be honest here: HTTP/3 is not a ranking factor of its own at Google. The benefit comes indirectly. Pages load faster for real users, and Google picks this up through Core Web Vitals.
OpenLiteSpeed or LiteSpeed Enterprise?
LiteSpeed comes in two main editions. OpenLiteSpeed is free and open source. It uses the same engine and the same cache as the paid version. LiteSpeed Enterprise costs money and is built as a direct replacement for Apache. It reads Apache settings without changes and supports control panels such as cPanel, Plesk and DirectAdmin.
The practical difference is .htaccess. Enterprise reads the file continuously, as Apache does. OpenLiteSpeed reads rewrite rules only when the server restarts, and ignores Header directives entirely. For your website's speed, the choice matters little. Both editions share the same engine and the same cache.
We Run OpenLiteSpeed Ourselves: What We Learned
The server behind mementor.no and our client sites runs OpenLiteSpeed 1.9.2, built August 6, 2026, with HTTP/3 enabled. We chose the free, open-source edition rather than Enterprise, and we have three lessons to share.
The cache does the work. The measurement above comes from this server. The first byte from the page cache arrives in 18 milliseconds, measured September 13, 2026. No web server rescues a page that has to be rebuilt for every visitor, so the cache is the first thing we set up.
.htaccess fooled us. In August we added a rule meant to stop scanners before they reached the site. The rule looked right but did nothing. OpenLiteSpeed had not read it, because rewrite rules are only read at restart. Our Header directives were ignored completely. The fix was to move them into the server's own configuration. If you come from Apache, this is the one surprise worth knowing about.
We stayed. After a restart, the server behaves as promised: low memory use, HTTP/3 without add-ons and a cache that keeps response time under 20 milliseconds. That is why clients with a Service Level Agreement sit on the same platform.
What to Look for in LiteSpeed Hosting
Many hosts advertise LiteSpeed, and the label alone says little. Four things separate a good LiteSpeed hosting setup from a sticker:
- The LiteSpeed Cache plugin is installed and connected to the server cache, not just present
- HTTP/3 is switched on, which you can check in the response headers
- Someone monitors the server and restarts it when the configuration changes
- The server sits close to your visitors, because distance costs milliseconds no software can win back
What Does This Mean for You as a Customer?
All websites with a service agreement at Mementor are hosted on our own LiteSpeed servers in Oslo. Short distance to Norwegian users provides low response time, and the data center is ISO 27001 certified. Read more about our lightning-fast WordPress hosting on Norwegian servers.
The result is a website that loads quickly, handles traffic spikes and gives Google what it's looking for. That's why we chose LiteSpeed, and why we're staying with it.
Would you like a faster website or online store? Contact us for a no-obligation quote on hosting with LiteSpeed.
Frequently Asked Questions About LiteSpeed
What is a LiteSpeed server?
A LiteSpeed server is software that delivers websites to visitors, in the same way as Apache and NGINX. It's known for high speed, low resource usage and built-in caching. LiteSpeed is used by 14.6 percent of all websites where the web server is known (W3Techs, September 13, 2026).
Is LiteSpeed faster than Apache and NGINX?
Yes, for websites with caching, LiteSpeed is the fastest. The manufacturer's own tests show up to 12 times higher speed than NGINX and 84 times higher than Apache on WordPress. Our own measurement on September 13, 2026 gave 1,312 requests per second from cache against 69 without. On purely static files the difference is small.
What is LiteSpeed used for?
LiteSpeed delivers web pages from the server to the browser, and is used mostly for WordPress, WooCommerce and other PHP-based sites that need low response times and a built-in cache. Many hosts use it as a drop-in replacement for Apache because it reads the same settings.
What is the fastest web server?
For static files, NGINX and LiteSpeed are roughly equal. For pages that have to be built, such as WordPress, LiteSpeed with its built-in cache is the fastest option in both the manufacturer's tests and our own measurements.
Is LiteSpeed free?
Partly. OpenLiteSpeed is free and open source. LiteSpeed Enterprise requires a license and provides full Apache compatibility with support for control panels such as cPanel and DirectAdmin. Both have the same engine and cache technology.
What is LiteSpeed Cache?
LiteSpeed Cache is a fast storage system built into the server. For WordPress, there's a free plugin with the same name that connects the website to the server cache. It has over 7 million active installations and works well with WooCommerce.
Does LiteSpeed help with SEO?
Yes, indirectly. A fast server gives low response time and better Core Web Vitals, which Google uses in ranking. Google considers a response time under 0.8 seconds to be good. LiteSpeed with caching makes it easy to stay well below that limit.
Does LiteSpeed support HTTP/3?
Yes. LiteSpeed was among the first web servers with full support for HTTP/3 and QUIC. The protocols provide faster and more stable loading, especially on mobile. HTTP/3 is not a ranking factor of its own at Google, but faster loading still helps.
