---
title: What Is LiteSpeed Web Server and Why Is It Faster Than Apache?
description: "**In short:** LiteSpeed is a web server that replaces Apache. It handles more visitors with fewer resources, is compatible with Apache settings and .htaccess files, and together with the LiteSpeed Cache plugin it makes WordPress websites noticeably faster. ## What…"
url: "https://www.hyyat.com/en/knowledgebase/what-is-litespeed/"
updated: "2026-09-30"
category: "Add-ons services to host"
---

# What Is LiteSpeed Web Server and Why Is It Faster Than Apache?

**In short:** LiteSpeed is a web server that replaces Apache. It handles more visitors with fewer resources, is compatible with Apache settings and .htaccess files, and together with the LiteSpeed Cache plugin it makes WordPress websites noticeably faster.

## What is LiteSpeed?

A web server is the software that receives requests from browsers and sends back your website pages. LiteSpeed Web Server is a high-performance alternative to Apache, the most traditional web server, and is widely used by hosting companies to speed up websites.

## Why is it faster than Apache?

Traditional Apache setups create a separate process or thread for many connections, which uses a lot of memory under heavy traffic. LiteSpeed uses an event-driven architecture that serves thousands of connections with a small number of processes, so it stays fast and stable during traffic spikes.

## Main benefits

- **Apache compatible:** reads .htaccess files and mod_rewrite rules, so websites move over without changes.
- **Built-in caching:** server-level page caching through LiteSpeed Cache (LSCache).
- **Faster PHP:** uses LSAPI, an optimized way to run PHP.
- **HTTP/3 and QUIC:** modern protocols for faster loading, especially on mobile.
- **Protection:** connection limits and anti-DDoS features at the server level.

## LiteSpeed and WordPress

The free LiteSpeed Cache plugin for WordPress works directly with the server cache, and adds image optimization, CSS and JavaScript minification and lazy loading. On LiteSpeed hosting, it is one of the most effective ways to make a WordPress site fast.

Hyyat Host [WordPress hosting](https://www.hyyat.com/en/wordpress-hosting/) runs on LiteSpeed servers with NVMe storage.

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