When comparing Apache vs Lighttpd, the Slant community recommends Apache for most people. In the question“What are the best web servers?” Apache is ranked 2nd while Lighttpd is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Apache is:
Apache has a lot of features and functionality.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Powerful
Apache has a lot of features and functionality.
Pro Excellent OS support
Pro Free and open source
Pro Easy solutions for complex configurations
Due to it's maturity, Apache has a lot of features to cover a wide range of situations.
Pro Great documentation
Apache has thorough documentation.
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 Simple setup for static content
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 Arcane configuration format
Configuration is as good as the manuals go. As soon as you have to configure it by yourself, it becomes a lot more difficult due to a rather obtuse system of configuration with long and confusing variable names, which has become infamous among web developers.
Con Process Based Request Handling
Each request opens a new process/fork to handle just that request (ver memory inefficient)
Con No built-in WSGI support
Lighttpd lacks Web Server Gateway Interface support.