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Add to SafariWhen comparing Apache vs IIS, the Slant community recommends Apache for most people. In the question“What are the best web servers?” Apache is ranked 4th while IIS is ranked 13th.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Free and open source
Pro Powerful
Apache has a lot of features and functionality.
Pro Excellent OS support
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 PHP spport
PHP applications can be run using IIS. Simple to install and configure.
Pro .NET and ASPX script support
Pro Supported by Microsoft
Pro Authentication (Anonymous, Basic, Digest, Integrated Windows Auth, UNC, .NET Passport (<6), Certificate)
Pro IPv6 support (IIS 6+)
Pro Multiple websites can be run on 1 server
Pro HTTP/2, HTTP/2, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, SMTP and NNTP support
Pro Runs on literal NT 3.51
So you can boot up that ancient work computer and get IIS (Free addon at the time) for that computer
Pro Very fast
If you want a quick web server, use this, because i mean like, on my laptop, the first request is 1 or 2 seconds, after that, it becomes a split second!
Pro In-depth diagnostic tools
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 Extremely inneficient
Opens a new thread for each request. In practice this means that unless you use a proxy (nginx) you can only have a certain number of people on your site at a time, and is extremely inefficient on the server side.
Con 1 website limit per server (also pre-7.0 client os limit)
Con 10 simultaneous connection limit on versions before 7.0 on client operating systems
Con Only runs on Windows
This Microsoft-proprietary web server software, can only run in the Windows operating systems for full support of it and all of its features. It is not capable of being run in a non-Windows environment without sacrificing some functionality and of course the support.
Con Proprietary
