# lighttpd

10 Hacker News commenters recommended lighttpd and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a solid, low-attack-surface C web server that runs with little fuss. One critic found it slower than nginx in a Django stack.

## Why people recommend it

- Reliable, trouble-free, nearly invisible operation (4 comments): "The big three C-based servers: Apache, Nginx, and lighttpd are all pretty solid" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48140864)) "Works so well that it's easy to forget they're running." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777887)) "I don't have any issues with lighttpd" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45944754))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Apache HTTP Server](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apache-http-server.md): 52 recommend
- [Zeroserve](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zeroserve.md): 17 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "lighttpd", https://hackerapproved.com/p/lighttpd/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).