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Introduction
Quite often, I get asked why I suggest or run Openlitespeed or Litespeed Enterprise. Specifically, what’s the difference between Openlitespeed/Litespeed over Nginx? This article aims to answer both questions.
What’s the difference between Openlitespeed and Litespeed
The Openlitespeed product is the open-source version of Litespeed Enterprise by Litespeed Technologies. The following are the main differences between Openlitespeed and Litespeed Enterprise.
Typically, the open-source version of software licensed for a fee will include all features but requires much more involvement to operate and install. Other times, specific features are not available in the open-source version of the software but are available in the paid version.
The latter is how Openlitespeed and Litespeed Enterprise have been provided; litespeed technologies have limited or removed specific features from Openlitespeed that are only available in Litespeed Enterprise.
Openlitespeed Limitations
The following are the features that aren’t available within Openlitespeed.
- The Optimized commercial mod_security engine is only available in Litespeed Enterprise.
- Unable to Read Apache’s configuration files directly, a reload/restart of Openlitespeed is required for .htaccess changes to be processed.
- It is not possible to use Openlitespeed as a full Apache Hosting control panel drop-in replacement; this is only available with Litespeed Enterprise.
- It doesn’t provide full .htaccess support, and some Apache .htaccess configuration is unavailable with Openlitespeed.
- There is no .htaccess caching; this is only available in Litespeed Enterprise.
- No SSL Offloading; this is only available in Litespeed Enterprise.
- The WordPress Brute Force Attacks Protection is only available in Litespeed Enterprise; options are still available for Openlitespeed.
- There is no chroot; this is only available in Litespeed Enterprise.
- There are no zero downtime server upgrades; this is only available in Litespeed Enterprise. Openlitespeed needs to be upgraded and restarted manually.
- There is no version management, allowing rollbacks to previous versions. Openlitespeed version rollbacks have to be done manually.
- There is no cPanel/WHM plugin / Plesk plugin; this is only available in Litespeed Enterprise.
- There is no caching plugin/helper for Magento 1.x and 2.x, PrestaShop, or Shopware; this is only available in Litespeed Enterprise.
- There is no ESI support in Openlitespeed; this is only available in Litespeed Enterprise.
- There are no MS FrontPage Server Extensions, Rails Shared Hosting or Redis Shared hosting in Openlitespeed, this is only available in Litespeed Enterprise.
This is very long list, however Openlitespeed is still very much functional if you’re aware of it’s limitations that related to WordPress.
Control Panels That Support Openlitespeed and Litespeed Enterprise
The following is a list of providers, and control panels that support Openlitespeed and Litespeed Enterprise.
Openlitespeed
- GridPane – SaaS Control Panel
- Runcloud – SaaS Control Panel
- CyberPanel – Self Hosted Control Panel
Litespeed Enterprise
- CyberPanel – Self Hosted Conrol Panel
Conclusion
Changelog
Author
Jordan Trask
With 20 years experience in technology spanning from Linux, Data Center Infrastructure and related services and applications. Jordan consults with small, medium and large organizations tackling problems and technology needs. With 10 years experience in WordPress, he’s created Managing WP as a means to dump his brain on the web.
Jordan operates LMT Solutions providing Technology Consulting Services and We Power WP for WordPress Care Plans and Support.
