What Is a Web Server? How It Delivers Websites, Explained

Every time you open a website, something on the other end has to store that page and hand it over to your browser. That something is a web server.

You don’t usually see it working. You just see the page load. Behind that instant response is a piece of hardware and software doing one specific job: holding a website’s files and sending them out whenever someone asks.

This guide breaks down what a web server actually is, how it works, and how it’s different from web hosting and a couple of other server types you’ve probably heard of.

What is a web server?

A web server is both hardware and the software that runs on it. The two work together, but they mean slightly different things.

The hardware side is a computer connected to the internet. It’s built to store a website’s files, things like HTML documents, images, and scripts, and to stay online so those files are available whenever someone requests them.

The software side understands a request and sends back the right file. This is what most people mean by “web server” in casual conversation. It runs on hardware and follows a set of rules called HTTP or HTTPS (the encrypted version) to talk to your browser.

So when someone says a site is “hosted on a web server,” they usually mean both things at once: a computer built to handle requests, running software that knows how to answer them.

How a web server works

A web server runs on what’s called the client-server model. Your browser is the client. It asks for something. The server’s job is to respond.

Here’s what happens in the moment between typing a web address and seeing the page load:

1. You type a web address into your browser, or click a link.
2. Your browser looks up the IP address tied to that domain name, so it knows which server to contact.
3. Your browser sends an HTTP request to that server, asking for a specific page or file.
4. The web server receives the request, finds the matching file, and sends it back.
5. Your browser turns that file into the page you see on screen.

All of this usually happens in a fraction of a second. If the file doesn’t exist, or something goes wrong on the server’s end, you’ll see an error message instead of the page you wanted.

Common web server software

A handful of programs handle most of the web’s traffic. Three you’ll come across most often:

• Apache HTTP Server. An open-source option maintained by the Apache Software Foundation. It’s been running websites since the 1990s and is still one of the most widely used web servers today.
• Nginx. Pronounced “engine-x.” Nginx is known for handling a large number of requests at once without slowing down, which is why a lot of high-traffic sites rely on it.
• Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services). Built by Microsoft for Windows Server. IIS is the standard choice for sites and applications built on Microsoft’s platform.

You won’t need to install or manage any of this yourself unless you’re setting up your own server. If you’re building a site through a web hosting provider, the provider decides which web server software runs behind the scenes.

Static vs. dynamic web servers

Web servers generally fall into one of two categories, based on how they handle content.

A static web server sends back the exact same file every time, no matter who’s asking. The page doesn’t change unless someone manually edits the file stored on the server.

A dynamic web server can build a page on the fly. It pulls information from a database or runs a script before sending the page back, so the content can change depending on who’s asking or what they’re looking for. Shopping carts, login pages, and personalized recommendations all rely on dynamic web servers.

Most modern websites use a mix of both: static files for things like images and stylesheets, and dynamic processing for anything that needs to change based on the user.

Web server vs. web hosting vs. database server

These three terms get mixed up a lot, mostly because they’re all part of the same system.

Term	What it actually is
Web server	The software (and the hardware it runs on) that stores a site's files and responds to requests from browsers.
Web hosting	The service that provides the server space, bandwidth, and support behind a website.
Database server	A separate server that stores and manages structured data, like user accounts or product listings. A web server queries it when a page needs more than a static file.

In short: web hosting is the service you pay for, a web server is the software doing the work, and a database server is what a web server talks to when a page needs to pull in more than a static file.

If you're choosing a provider to handle the server side for you, see our roundup of the best web hosting services.

Bottom line

A web server isn’t as mysterious as it sounds. It’s the combination of hardware and software responsible for storing a website’s files and sending them to whoever asks, whether that’s you opening a browser or an app making a request in the background.

You don’t need to run your own web server to have a website. Most people rely on a web hosting provider, which handles the server side so you can focus on the site itself. Knowing what’s happening behind the scenes just makes it easier to understand terms like hosting, bandwidth, and uptime the next time you run into them.

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