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LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS) Has Four Editions
(see feature comparison)
- Free Standard Edition: meets the needs for all small to medium websites (with a limit of 150 concurrent connections and 5 Apache vhosts)
- VPS Edition: economic solution for low-end VPS (not dedicated servers). This license has a limit of 500 concurrent connections and 2G memory. Currently supported platforms are KVM, HyperV, Virtuozzo, OpenVZ VPS, XEN, VMWare and UserModeLinux VPS.
- Ultra VPS Edition: a solution for users who need more than the VPS license's 2GB of RAM, but don't need the power of a 1-CPU license — 8GB RAM and 600 concurrent connections limits. VPS users with more than 8GB of RAM will require a 1-CPU license. (Ultra VPS is only supported on LiteSpeed Web Server v4.2.2 and up.)
- Enterprise Edition: for the best performance, scalability and security. (1-CPU license does not include LiteSpeed cache)
There are also three types of paid licenses which give you the option to choose one that best suits your needs.
- Owned License: which features a 1 year free upgrade.
- Monthly Leased License: which includes a free upgrade within the leased period.
- Yearly Leased License: which includes a free upgrade within the leased period.
For the Enterprise edition, there is a 15-day free trial and a 30-day money back guarantee.
For support, you can use forum for FREE support, or the Order Paid support service.
The number of your licensed CPU cores DOES NOT need to match with that of your physical server
A license does NOT require the licensed CPU cores to match the amount of CPU or cores of your physical server. It simply denotes the number of CPUs that the LiteSpeed server process utilizes. LiteSpeed web server itself is very lightweight and does not consume as much CPU or memory as MySQL and PHP does.
If your server has more than one CPU core, you may choose between 1, 2, 4 or 8 CPU licenses. If you have a very powerful server with several dozens of CPU cores available, please contact sales for customized build solutions.
| Licensed (CPU(s)) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Server CPU(core(s))1 | < = 2GB RAM | > 2GB RAM < 8GB RAM | > 8GB RAM | |
| 1 | VPS | Ultra VPS | 1 or 22 | |
| 2 | VPS, 1 | Ultra VPS, 1 | 1 or 23 | |
| 4 | VPS, 1 or 2 | Ultra VPS, 1 or 2 | 1, 2 or 43 | |
| 6 | VPS, 1 or 2 | Ultra VPS, 1 or 2 | 1, 2 or 4 | |
| 8 | VPS, 1 or 2 | Ultra VPS, 1 or 2 | 1, 2, 4 or 83 | |
| 12 | N/A | N/A | 2, 4, 8 or contact sales | |
| 16 | N/A | N/A | 2, 4, 8 or contact sales | |
| 24 | N/A | N/A | 2, 4, 8 or contact sales | |
| 32 | N/A | N/A | 2, 4, 8 or contact sales | |
| 48 | N/A | N/A | 2, 4, 8 or contact sales | |
| 64 | N/A | N/A | 2, 4, 8 or contact sales | |
| 80 | N/A | N/A | 2, 4, 8 or contact sales | |
Note:
- HyperThread does NOT count.
- You may get 2-CPU license for 1 CPU server if you need cache functions (not available for 1-CPU license).
- You may get a license that matches up server CPU cores for a heavy file download server. IOW, have LSWS fully utilize server CPU power.
Some factors to consider:
- What other processes are running on the same server?
For example, if you have a 4-core server and run LSWS, PHP, and MySQL on the same server, you can buy 1 or 2-CPU license, as your other CPU power will be fully utilized by PHP and MySQL processes. Usually for a 4-core server, you will not need anything higher than a 2-CPU license if you have other external applications like PHP or RoR.
- Do you have a high volume of HTTPS traffic?
This requires more CPU power for encryption.
- Is the content you serve mainly static (such as images, file downloads, etc.)?
These are served by LSWS directly, so more CPU will help. If your server is mainly PHP/MySQL powered, a 4-CPU license may not help much as LiteSpeed will not be the bottleneck.
- What is 'disk I/O wait?'
Like all other lightweight web servers, blocking disk I/O will block LiteSpeed's process. Therefore, if your server has high I/O wait, you should consider a higher CPU license in order to compensate. Since version 4.1, LiteSpeed has supported AIO (asynchronous IO).
- LiteSpeed Dynamic Content Cache, a varnish-like page cache, is only available for 2-CPU licenses and onwards.
- VPS licenses cost less, but have restrictions of 500 concurrent connections and a 2GB memory limit.
- Ultra VPS, with restriction of 600 concurrent connections and an 8GB memory limit, has been available since March 2013.
How do I check concurrent connections for my server?
There is limit for max concurrent connections for different licenses. The free version has a limit of 150, the VPS license, 500, Ultra VPS, 600, and the Enterprise edition is unlimited. You can check the number of concurrent connections used from the real-time report under web admin console, or use the command
netstat -an | grep 80 | grep ESTA | wc -l
Remember, though, only “established” connections from netstat output are considered to be concurrent. For example, a forum with 3,000 users online might only use 300 concurrent connections, as those 3,000 users do not all execute actions at the exact same split second.