---
title: "Apache"
description: "Apache HTTP Server is a modular open-source web server powering much of the web. See how MPMs, modules and .htaccess work and when to pick it over Nginx."
url: "https://nodea.io/en/glossary/apache"
lang: "en"
updated: "2026-07-13"
---

# Apache

> Apache HTTP Server is a long-established open-source web server that answers HTTP and HTTPS requests. Its modular design and per-directory .htaccess overrides made it the backbone of shared hosting.

**Apache**, formally the Apache HTTP Server (daemon name *httpd*), is an open-source web server developed by the Apache Software Foundation since 1995. It listens for [HTTP](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/http) and HTTPS requests and returns responses — static files, output from PHP or other application backends, redirects and error pages. For roughly two decades it was the most widely deployed web server on the internet, and it still powers a large share of shared hosting environments today.

## How Apache works

Apache's architecture is modular: a compact core is extended with loadable modules such as *mod\_rewrite* for URL rewriting, *mod\_ssl* for TLS, *mod\_headers*, *mod\_proxy* and the ModSecurity web application firewall. Request handling is governed by a Multi-Processing Module (MPM): *prefork* spawns a separate process per connection (required by the embedded mod\_php), while *worker* and the modern *event* MPM use threads and handle keep-alive connections far more efficiently, typically paired with [PHP-FPM](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/php-fpm) over FastCGI.

Apache's signature feature is the [.htaccess](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/htaccess) file: a per-directory configuration override that lets site owners define redirects, access rules or custom headers without touching the main server config and without a service restart.

## Practical application

Apache is the default engine behind most hosting control panels — cPanel, DirectAdmin, Plesk — largely because .htaccess gives every customer safe, sandboxed control over their own site's behavior. Popular PHP applications like WordPress and PrestaShop ship ready-made mod\_rewrite rules, so pretty URLs work out of the box on a typical shared hosting account.

In higher-traffic architectures Apache frequently sits behind [Nginx](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/nginx) acting as a reverse proxy: the event-driven front end terminates thousands of concurrent connections and serves static assets, while Apache processes the dynamic requests it is best at. Choosing between them comes down to priorities — per-directory flexibility and ecosystem maturity on one side, raw concurrency and a smaller memory footprint on the other.

### Is Apache still a good choice compared to Nginx?

Yes, depending on the workload. Apache offers unmatched flexibility with per-directory .htaccess overrides and a huge module ecosystem, which suits shared hosting and legacy PHP apps. Nginx handles very high concurrency more efficiently; many production stacks simply run Nginx in front of Apache to get both.

## Related

- [Nginx](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/nginx)
- [LiteSpeed](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/litespeed)
- [.htaccess](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/htaccess)
- [PHP-FPM](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/php-fpm)
- [Reverse Proxy](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/reverse-proxy)

---

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