What Is a Web Server?

Learn more about web servers, including how web servers work, what they’re used for, and key differences between web servers and application servers.

What Is a Web Server?

  • A web server is a computer system capable of delivering web content to end users over the internet via a web browser.

  • The end user processes a request via a web browser installed on a web server. The communication between a web server or browser and the end user takes place using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The primary role of a web server is to store, process, and deliver requested information or webpages to end users. It uses:

    Physical Storage: All website data is stored on a physical web server to ensure its safety. When an end user enters the URL of your website or searches it using a keyword on a browser, a request is generated and sent to the web server to process the data.

    Web browser: The role of web browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, or Internet Explorer is to find the web server on which your website data is located. Once the browser finds your server, it reads the request and processes the information.

  • Web servers are primarily used to process and manage HTTP/HTTPS requests and responses from the client system.

    A web server can also perform several other functions, such as:

    • Store and protect website data: A web server can store and protect critical website data from unauthorized users.
    • Control bandwidth to regulate network traffic: A web server can help eliminate the downtime caused by high web traffic. Web hosts can set bandwidth to manage the rate of data transmission over the internet and minimize the excess network traffic.
    • Server-side web scripting: The server-side web scripting feature enables users to create dynamic web pages using scripting languages such as Ruby, Python, and PHP.
    • Virtual hosting: Web servers can also be used as virtual servers to run multiple applications, websites, data, and other services.

  • A web server can be static or dynamic:

    • Static web server: A static web server includes hardware or a computer with an HTTP server. These servers are known as static as they help display hosted content. The best example of a static web server is an NGINX web server.
    • Dynamic web server: Dynamic web servers include a static server, application server, and database. It is known as dynamic as it uses the application server to update hosted files before sending them to the user's browser via HTTP. A dynamic website can update and display different content such as images, videos, and HTML text. One of the best examples of dynamic web servers is an Apache web server.

  • Some of the most common web servers are outlined below:

    • Linux web server software: Linux server is built on an open-source Linux operating system that enables you to deliver content, applications, and services to end users. Linux servers are flexible, consistent, and high-performing servers with snapshot capabilities, optimized security, and scalable cloud technologies. These servers help address the increasing requirements of web services, applications, database management, and more.
    • NGINX web server software: NGINX is a popular open-source web server that runs and utilizes resources efficiently. It can handle huge volumes of traffic. It offers reverse proxy, HTTP caching services, email proxy, and load balancing. NGINX is a scalable, lightweight, and powerful web server capable of handling concurrent connections and is ideal for delivering static content.
    • Apache web server software: Apache web server or Apache HTTP server is an open-source server that processes user requests and delivers web assets and content via HTTP. This web server uses the MySQL database to store critical information in an easily readable format. With the help of the PHP programming language, Apache can create and serve dynamic web content.
    • IIS web server software: Microsoft Internet Information Service (IIS) web server is also known as a Windows web server. It’s one of the most commonly used web servers used on a Windows operating system. It is a versatile and stable web server widely used to host ASP.NET web applications, static websites, and web applications built on PHP. It can also be used as an FTP server to host WCF services. Although it has a built-in authentication option such as Windows, ASP.NET, and Basic, it’s easier for Windows users to sign in to various web applications using their domain account. Other built-in security features include TLS certificate management, request logging, FTP-specific security options, and more.

  • Web server: The web server accepts and processes requests from end users for static website content. It handles requests and responses via HTTP only. Web servers are generally helpful in serving static content or static HTML webpages. It consumes fewer resources such as CPU or memory compared to the application server and provides a runtime environment for web applications.

    Application server: The application server can deliver web content and dynamic content required for displaying decision support, transaction results, or real-time analytics. However, its primary role is to enable interaction between the end user and server-side application code. These servers enhance interactive content or website components depending on the request. Application servers use web containers. These servers use more resources compared to web servers and provide the runtime environment for enterprise applications. These servers also support HTTP and RPC/RMI protocols.

  • Optimizing a web server requires regular monitoring of web and application servers. Outlined below are the few benefits of monitoring and optimizing your server:

    • Helps solve critical problems quickly: It’s crucial to monitor web and application servers to ensure availability and performance. Monitoring web servers provides vital insights into application pools (worker processes, cache, requests), connections (current and total connections), websites (network, files), cache (memory usage, file cache).
    • Optimize infrastructure resources: It helps to understand key performance metrics, website load, so you can effectively use infrastructure resources such as CPU utilization, network traffic, disk capacity, and more. It also provides crucial insights, such as client connections, web server traffic and status, server load.
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