When people buy shared hosting, they compare storage, bandwidth, and price. Almost nobody asks what web server software runs underneath. That is a mistake, because the server software determines how fast your site loads more than almost anything else — including which plan you are on.
What a web server actually does
Every time someone opens your website, a request travels from their browser to your server. The server software receives that request, processes it, and sends back the page. How efficiently it does this under load — with hundreds or thousands of simultaneous visitors — is the difference between a 0.8-second load time and a 4-second load time.
Apache has been the standard for decades. It works. But it was designed in a time when websites were mostly static HTML files, and when simultaneous traffic meant tens of requests, not thousands.
What LiteSpeed does differently
LiteSpeed is an event-driven server. Instead of spawning a new process for every incoming request (Apache's model), it handles many connections in a single thread. The practical result: LiteSpeed uses dramatically less RAM and CPU under the same traffic load.
LiteSpeed-specific features that matter:
- LSCache — a full-page cache built into the server. For WordPress sites, LSCache is the fastest caching layer available, faster than WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache because it operates below the PHP layer.
- HTTP/3 and QUIC support — the latest transport protocols, which reduce latency especially on mobile networks. Apache does not natively support HTTP/3.
- Built-in rate limiting and DDoS mitigation — LiteSpeed can absorb and reject malicious traffic at the server layer, before it consumes PHP or database resources.
- Drop-in Apache compatibility — .htaccess files work without modification. Migrating from Apache-based hosting to LiteSpeed requires no changes to your application.
What this means for a typical WordPress site
In independent benchmarks, a WordPress site on LiteSpeed with LSCache enabled handles around 3× more requests per second than the same site on Apache. Under normal shared hosting conditions, this translates to load times consistently under 1 second versus 2–4 seconds on a congested Apache server.
Page speed affects more than user experience. Google's Core Web Vitals directly factor load time into search rankings. A faster server means better SEO, fewer bounces, and higher conversion on landing pages.
Every OneNet Servers plan runs LiteSpeed
We made the decision to standardise on LiteSpeed Enterprise across all shared, reseller, and WordPress hosting plans. Not as an upsell, not as a premium tier — as the baseline.
CloudLinux adds container isolation on top: each account gets its own memory and CPU limits so a busy neighbour cannot slow your site down. It is the same isolation model that enterprise hosting providers use, applied to shared plans from $3.99/mo.
If you are currently on an Apache-based host and your Pagespeed score is below 80, server software is likely a factor. Migrate to OneNet Servers free — we handle the transfer at no cost on every plan.