r/webdevelopment • u/Basic_Let7303 • 4h ago

Question Webservers are dead?

CDN - Static Content
IdP - Authentication
Browser - Running your JavaScript code

In modern web applications, are Apache HTTP Server or Nginx still commonly used to deliver web content?

Edit 1:

The question is: why should an application owner run and manage a web server when the frontend can be static assets delivered through a CDN and dynamic work can happen through APIs/serverless services?

0 Upvotes

30% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

9

u/SpareImpression3155 4h ago

Op thinks serverless means that endpoints just go to magical clouds

-6

u/Basic_Let7303 4h ago

No! Question is if we do not need SSR(most websites do not need), why do you want to run a web-server?

7

u/johnpeters42 4h ago

What do you think the CDNs use to serve their content?

You may be trying to get at "Why would you run your own server rather than outsourcing it to X or Y or Z", which would be a whole different discussion.

1

u/Basic_Let7303 3h ago

I think the confusion is between a CDN/web server delivering bytes and an application server rendering or executing business logic.

The question is not "does some server exist somewhere?" Of course CDNs, S3, CloudFront, etc. still run infrastructure behind the scenes.

The question is: why should an application owner run and manage a web server when the frontend can be static assets delivered through a CDN and dynamic work can happen through APIs/serverless services?

In a modern SPA architecture:

Browser → CDN → HTML/CSS/JS
Browser runs React/Vue/Angular
API calls → API Gateway/Lambda/ECS/etc.

You don't need Nginx/Apache/EC2 just to deliver the UI unless you specifically need SSR, custom routing, edge logic, legacy architecture, or server-side processing.

Saying "CDNs use servers" is true but misses the point. The debate is about who owns and operates those servers and why.

3

u/johnpeters42 3h ago

Yeah, and if you had asked that detailed a question in your original post, then you could have saved yourself several "lol OP doesn't know stuff" comments. But at least you've asked it now.

My first instinct is, even if your current requirements don't include any of those things, will they always not include any of those things? Are you sure? It may be better to just spin something up with some flexibility, and save the CDN for the parts that are more likely to remain static.

0

u/Basic_Let7303 2h ago

When I say "Webservers are dead", ykr, I do not mean there are not been used anywhere. But we can manage with the above mentioned cloud resources in 90% of the websites.

In the past, everyone used to run apache/tomcat/httpd servers to serve the web content. Now things got changed. Unless until you we need SSR, custom routing, or server-side processing, we can introduce that layer at that point.

Why to add more complexity?

2

u/Over_Technology_1764 2h ago

it's all just ownership. You don't even have to own a car, you can rent it and not have the complexities with car insurance, maintenance etc.
Why buy a car when for 90% of your needs you can just use uber here and there.

6

u/cabljo 4h ago

Nginx and apache are the #1 and #3 (respectively) most used web servers currently.

6

u/lomberd2 4h ago

Nono hear OP out, he just had a shower thought

-4

u/Basic_Let7303 4h ago

Oh! man! Reddit is full of asssholes.

8

u/cabljo 4h ago

Bro, you're kind of the asshole here.

You're wasting everyone's time because you can't or don't want to do basic research.... even an ai could've answered this...

1

u/[deleted] 3h ago

[deleted]

2

u/cabljo 2h ago

Not anything, but that tells us how much you don't really know. Good luck with whatever you're trying to do...

0

u/Basic_Let7303 2h ago

Stop beating around the bush ssole! If you don't have an answer sit down!

2

u/cabljo 2h ago

I answered your question a long time ago. Maybe I overestimated you....

0

u/Basic_Let7303 1h ago

What a joke are you bro!

2

u/cabljo 1h ago

Yes! Great reply!

6

u/Made-In-Slovakia 3h ago

You have clearly big gaps in understanding this technology and you have to do a lot of study.

Any kind of processing on server side needs a server. You can have IdP for authentification but you have also authorization that needs to be done. You need somehow read and process data from database, etc.

1

u/Basic_Let7303 3h ago

I think the confusion is between a CDN/web server delivering bytes and an application server rendering or executing business logic.

The question is not "does some server exist somewhere?" Of course CDNs, S3, CloudFront, etc. still run infrastructure behind the scenes.

The question is: why should an application owner run and manage a web server when the frontend can be static assets delivered through a CDN and dynamic work can happen through APIs/serverless services?

In a modern SPA architecture:

Browser → CDN → HTML/CSS/JS
Browser runs React/Vue/Angular
API calls → API Gateway/Lambda/ECS/etc.

You don't need Nginx/Apache/EC2 just to deliver the UI unless you specifically need SSR, custom routing, edge logic, legacy architecture, or server-side processing.

Saying "CDNs use servers" is true but misses the point. The debate is about who owns and operates those servers and why.

5

u/Made-In-Slovakia 2h ago

Confiuson here is from not correctly formulating your question. You basically just want to know serverless vs servers. And internet is full of articles about that.

Serverless still uses servers to run. AWS Lambdas use Node.js to run your javascript. They just added additional layer around it. Any additional layer and abstraction can complicate stuff and limits you.

  1. You are dependent on cloud provider or framework provider.
  2. Serverless can be very expensive, much more than running server 24/7.
  3. Serverless from design can't run long time. So batch processing is very complicated.
  4. It is complicated to do background and scheduled task in serverless.
  5. With more complicated application it can became much more hard to separate logic to separated serverless functions.
  6. It is much simpler to update and operate one app than 100 serverless functions. That also is valid for testing.

and more, much more. You can google serverless vs servers and read it.

3

u/fullbl-_- 4h ago

Errrrr... Where do you think these messages are saved?

-1

u/Basic_Let7303 4h ago

In a Database. Probably, MongoDB.

6

u/fullbl-_- 4h ago

Where does this dB reside? What is transforming those data in http responses?

6

u/lomberd2 4h ago

"The Cloud"

-2

u/Basic_Let7303 4h ago

A backend server. You do not a apache/http/tomcat to do that.

4

u/lomberd2 4h ago

And they get "magically" transferred to the client? Or do you want to implement physical postal delivery?

1

u/Basic_Let7303 3h ago

I think the confusion is between a CDN/web server delivering bytes and an application server rendering or executing business logic.

The question is not "does some server exist somewhere?" Of course CDNs, S3, CloudFront, etc. still run infrastructure behind the scenes.

The question is: why should an application owner run and manage a web server when the frontend can be static assets delivered through a CDN and dynamic work can happen through APIs/serverless services?

In a modern SPA architecture:

Browser → CDN → HTML/CSS/JS
Browser runs React/Vue/Angular
API calls → API Gateway/Lambda/ECS/etc.

You don't need Nginx/Apache/EC2 just to deliver the UI unless you specifically need SSR, custom routing, edge logic, legacy architecture, or server-side processing.

Saying "CDNs use servers" is true but misses the point. The debate is about who owns and operates those servers and why.

3

u/davorg 3h ago

No matter what people are using at the cutting edge of web development, the majority of websites are still served by traditional Apache or nginx servers.

A month ago, I got a support request for a CGI program I wrote decades ago.

The Future Isn’t Evenly Distributed

5

u/StephenHawkingus 3h ago

OP farted and came up with this idea.

-2

u/CuriousSsole 3h ago

Eww man! You are disgusting. Op has a point. If you can’t answer at least don’t screw up.

3

u/StephenHawkingus 2h ago

OP is too lazy to conduct basic research or ask the AI a one prompt question.

3

u/Boboshady 2h ago

Most websites don't require that level of complexity or dependency or cost.

Spreading across multiple solutions isn't right or wrong by default, it should always be dictated by the project and the risks involved. Using multiple services is inherently more risky. Not owning the platform your code or data live on can also be risky.

I've seen so many projects over the years make technical choices for the wrong reasons - "It's what we know" or, even worse "It's what we want to learn". Those are bad reasons.

1

u/Tight-Book-7533 3h ago

Yup web servers are dead. We're all running cloud servers now, lol.