When comparing Nginx vs Lighttpd, the Slant community recommends Nginx for most people. In the question“What are the best web servers?” Nginx is ranked 1st while Lighttpd is ranked 3rd.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Highly efficient memory use
Pro Fast and built for scalability
Nginx is event-driven, asynchronous, non-blocking and single threaded (one master process + worker processes). This allows nginx to be manage resources more efficiently compared to thread-based models (like Apache).
Pro Lightweight
Nginx offers a more basic set of functions out of the box compared most web servers. Extra functionality can be added via modules.
Pro Highly efficient CPU use
Pro Free and open source
Pro Advanced load balancing and caching
Pro Event Based Request Handling
Does not fork/thread per request.
Pro Easily configurable
Configuration files are concise and simple.
Pro Simple setup for static content
Pro Fast and built for scalability
Lighttpd is event-driven, asynchronous, non-blocking and single threaded. This allows lighttpd to be manage resources more efficiently compared to thread-based models (like Apache).
Pro Free and open source
Pro Lightweight
Lighttpd offers a more basic set of functions out of the box compared most web servers. Extra functionality can be added via modules.
Cons
Con No built-in WSGI support
Lighttpd lacks Web Server Gateway Interface support.