Lightning Fast Hosting Performance with LiteSpeed Web Server

Web Hosting is the foundation on which your site loads and responds to visitors engaging with it, the better the foundation, the faster your website responds. This blog looks at how LiteSpeed Web Server’s integration into our infrastructure works, its features, and how it can improve your website’s performance. It goes without saying that people expect websites to load almost immediately, while search engines use this performance as a major factor in their rankings. This is where Hosted.com, using LiteSpeed server technology, comes into play.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Web server technology can directly impact your website’s performance, visitor experience, and search engine rankings.
• LiteSpeed offers a modern, efficient alternative to traditional web servers, combining high performance, security, and an extensive feature set.
• LiteSpeed’s LSCache plugin provides an integrated solution for WordPress sites, offering exceptional performance gains with built-in server-level caching and advanced controls.
• Comparisons consistently show LiteSpeed outperforming Apache or Nginx across various performance metrics, delivering multiple benefits for websites.
• Hosted.com’s LiteSpeed-powered infrastructure provides a hosting experience that maximizes website performance while maintaining reliability and security.

Understanding Web Hosting Servers

Web hosting servers provide the hardware and software to deliver your website’s content to online visitors. Without them, the internet would be a much smaller place.

When a person enters your domain name into their browser, it sends a request for your pages; the hosting server processes the request, finds the correct stored files, and delivers them to their browser.

The time it takes for the server to respond, also known as Time to First Byte (TTFB), directly influences your website’s loading speed and ultimately, the user experience. Slow sites lead to frustration, meaning higher bounce rates, lower engagement, and more abandoned carts (if you’re running an online store).

That will have a knock-on effect on your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Google’s algorithms use the above behavior as signals when it comes to ranking sites in search results, meaning it prefers to direct people to sites with a positive user experience.

While traditional web server tech like Apache and Nginx have been the industry standard for decades, they can be somewhat limited in terms of performance and resource (CPU, RAM, disk space) consumption, especially under high traffic or sites with complex configurations and multiple resource-heavy features.

These days, websites are much more demanding when it comes to servers – they need to handle thousands of connections at a time, maintain security and deliver content as fast as possible. This is where technology like LiteSpeed can give both hosting companies and, in turn, their customers, an edge in page speeds and keeping their online visitors happy.

Introducing LiteSpeed Web Server

LiteSpeed Web Server is a high-performance server software stack designed as a drop-in replacement for Apache, addressing the performance limitations of traditional server software.

LiteSpeed is fundamentally different from Apache or Nginx. Instead of using a process-based model, LiteSpeed uses event-driven architecture, which means the server handles requests by reacting to “events” like a visitor requesting a webpage rather than following a rigid, sequential process.

In simpler terms, instead of waiting in line, requests are processed as soon as the server is ready for them. This lets it handle thousands of concurrent connections with fewer processes and less resource overhead without affecting performance and security.

Speaking of security, LiteSpeed comes packed with features designed to help protect your site from harmful traffic like Brute Force and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks.

Brute force attacks and DDoS botnet traffic consume server resources, wasting CPU and bandwidth. LiteSpeed helps prevent and mitigate these threats, keeping your sites running smoothly with advanced rate limiting and connection control features.

It also fully supports ModSecurity, letting hosting providers like Hosted.com implement advanced Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) at the server level for even greater site security.

LiteSpeed Cache

As we’ve covered, the main feature of LiteSpeed is its event-driven architecture that saves on resources without reducing performance, giving faster load times and better handling of high traffic requests, than other types of server solutions.

But that’s not all.  LiteSpeed offers a powerful caching plugin for WordPress Hosting that dramatically reduces server load and improves response times for both static and dynamic content.

Many websites are dynamic, meaning they change based on the actions a person takes (adding something to a cart, filling out a form, etc.), their location, or other inputs in real-time.

Generating these pages often involves processing large amounts of code and querying the database, which can be time-consuming. Every time a person’s browser requests a page, the server must run these processes, which can slow down the website, especially during high traffic periods.

Caching helps with your website’s speed by saving frequently accessed data and static versions of your website’s pages in a temporary storage location. This means that instead of repeatedly processing the same requests from scratch every time, it can deliver the stored content, resulting in faster loading times for online visitors while reducing the strain on the server.

LiteSpeed Cache (LSCache) is an all-in-one optimization plugin for WordPress, letting you easily handle traffic spikes while speeding up content delivery.

The LSCache plugin includes built-in PageSpeed and image optimization, as well as easy integration with third-party CDNs (Content Delivery Networks), among other features, including personalized WooCommerce caching for ecommerce.

LSCache can store and serve fully rendered WordPress pages, significantly reducing server load and improving response times. Granular cache control options allow for fine-tuning cache behavior, expiration times, and purge rules to match your needs.

Performance Comparison

When comparing LiteSpeed to Apache or Nginx, there are some pretty substantial differences in performance.

Firstly, LiteSpeed uses less memory and CPU resources than traditional web servers when handling the same traffic. This translates to a LiteSpeed Web Server delivering 2-5 times faster page load speeds at a 98% lower server load. You can see why it’s an integral part of our hosting infrastructure for several reasons:

Request Handling

This refers to how a web server manages incoming requests from users. Better handling ensures that the server can process multiple requests and connections simultaneously, and as quickly as possible. This is especially important for websites with an excess of dynamic content and heavy traffic.

In tests, LiteSpeed has consistently outperformed traditional server software in terms of requests per second, particularly in high-traffic situations that require large amounts of content to be generated on the fly.

Static Content Delivery

Static content on your site include elements such as; images, CSS, and HTML files, that don’t change. The quicker your static content is delivered, the faster these files are served to your visitors, improving load times and site performance while maintaining a positive user experience.

LiteSpeed is known for its high-speed static content delivery, delivering files up to 50% faster, making it ideal for image-heavy websites.

PHP Performance

PHP is a scripting language used to create dynamic web pages, and it is the language that powers WordPress. The performance of PHP in hosting refers to how quickly and efficiently a server executes these scripts; improved PHP performance results in faster server response times.

WordPress sites and those running PHP scripts generally see a big improvement in execution times with a lower TTFB thanks to LiteSpeed Web Server, making them faster and more responsive.

Web Hosting with Hosted.com Powered By LiteSpeed Web Server

Hosted.com’s Web and WordPress Hosting infrastructure is designed and optimized to give you the best in site performance, security, and stability.

By combining cutting-edge hardware and the LiteSpeed Web Server software, we can deliver the best possible performance while keeping resource usage to a minimum for websites of all types and sizes.

• High-frequency AMD processors provide exceptional processing power while maintaining energy efficiency
• Fast DDR5 RAM enables quicker page processing and database queries
• State-of-the-art server components ensure smooth and efficient site operation even under traffic spikes.

For WordPress users, the LiteSpeed Cache plugin delivers full-page caching that dramatically reduces load times, improves database performance, and reduces bandwidth usage.

It also comes with built-in image optimization that automatically converts and compresses file sizes, further increasing page speeds. 

In addition to the built-in DDoS protection from LiteSpeed, you also get access to everything else you need to keep your files, data, and customers safe from hackers and cyber-attacks.

This includes advanced malware scanning and removal, a free SSL certificate to encrypt data transmission, daily automated backups, and 1-Click WordPress security hardening.

Our plans come with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, ensuring your website stays up and accessible to visitors at all times.

This means websites load faster, respond better, and stay secure, giving you:  

• More engagement and time spent on your pages with lower bounce rates.
• Increased search engine visibility thanks to a great user experience.
• Higher conversion rates and happier customers.

FAQS

Other Blogs of Interest:

– cPanel and Web Hosting with Hosted.com

– Hosted.com and Monarx: A Partnership for Maximum Cyber Security

– Hosted.com’s Next-Generation WordPress Hosting: Performance, Security, and Reliability

– CloudLinux and Hosted.com: Bringing You the Best in Web Hosting Server Performance

– A Guide to Server Security with Hosted.com Powered by Imunify360