LiteSpeed web server: what it does for your site and which plans have it

A web server is the software that takes each visitor's request and sends back your pages. On the WordPress Hosting and Business Hosting plans that job is done by LiteSpeed, a fast web server with page caching built in. We set it up for you, so there is nothing to install on the server.

Which plans use it

• WordPress Hosting and Business Hosting: LiteSpeed, together with LiteSpeed Cache.
• Web Hosting SSD: Nginx and Apache. Sites run very well here too, but features that depend on the LiteSpeed server itself, such as the page cache of the LiteSpeed Cache plugin, are not available.
• VPS: the web server is whatever you install. The free CyberPanel control panel, for instance, ships with OpenLiteSpeed, the open-source edition of LiteSpeed.

What your site gains

• Pages served from cache. A page that has already been built is sent as is, without PHP and the database doing the work again. Visitors get it sooner.
• Lighter resource use. Every cached page saves CPU time and memory within your account's limits.
• Better handling of traffic spikes. A promotion that brings in a crowd all at once is easier to absorb.
• Apache compatibility. LiteSpeed reads .htaccess files, so your existing redirects and rewrite rules keep working unchanged.

Getting the most out of it

1. WordPress: install the LiteSpeed Cache plugin. The easiest route is cPanel's WP Toolkit: select your site, open its plugins tab and search for "LiteSpeed Cache". Alternatively, add it from the WordPress dashboard under Plugins.
2. Other platforms (OpenCart, PrestaShop, Magento, Joomla and more): use the LiteSpeed Cache module made for your platform, from LiteSpeed's official website.
3. Measure it: run a speed test before and after, for example with PageSpeed Insights, to see the real difference.

Common mistake: running two page-cache plugins at once (LiteSpeed Cache plus another). They get in each other's way and can serve stale or broken pages. Keep just one.

How to tell your site runs on LiteSpeed

1. Open your site and press F12 to bring up the developer tools.
2. On the Network tab, reload the page and click the first request (the main document).
3. Among the response headers, server should read LiteSpeed. If the site sits behind Cloudflare you will see cloudflare there instead, even though LiteSpeed is running behind it.

Questions about the right plan or about cache settings? Open a ticket.

Related articles

• Setting up the LiteSpeed Cache plugin in WordPress
• LiteSpeed Cache: clearing the cache and fixing problems
• A slow website: common causes and how to fix them
• Complete guide to WP Toolkit in cPanel