Abyss Web Server Features

Compact, easy to use and fully compliant to standards

Abyss Web Server is a compact web server available for Windows, macOS and Linux operating systems.

Low requirements for great performance

Abyss Web Server does not require huge memory or excessive computing power to run. That's why it can be used without problems even on small or out-dated systems. It performs at least as well as the common web servers available on the market.

Ready for modern workloads with HTTP/2 support

Abyss Web Server enables by default the modern HTTP/2 protocol.
HTTP/2 makes it possible to multiplex over a single TCP/IP connection the simultaneous delivery of different components of a Web page requested by a browser.

Available for both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms

Abyss Web Server features a native 64-bit edition for a maximum performance on modern systems. The installation packages contain both 32-bit and 64-bit editions.
On Windows, the 64-bit edition is automatically installed if a 64-bit Windows systems is detected. On Linux, the 64-bit edition is used if a 64-bit operating system is detected.
On macOS, Abyss Web Server ships as a Universal 2 application compatible with all Macintosh computers manufactured since late 2006 with Mac OS X 10.9 or later. It includes both Intel 64-bit and ARM64-based Apple silicon binaries.

Easy configuration

An intuitive web management interface called the console makes the web server configuration as easy as browsing a web site. No need to edit configuration files, the console helps you setting the server parameters in an effortless manner and can be accessed from a local or a remote computer. It is available in many languages such as English, French, Arabic, Chinese and Spanish.

Fault-tolerant and robust

Abyss Web Server is based on the APX architecture. APX (which stands for Anti-crash Protection eXtension) was created, here at Aprelium, to make the server crash-proof. If it happens that the software causes a critical error and crashes (which is by the way very improbable), a report will be generated if possible and the server is automatically restarted. The downtime in such a case won't exceed 1 second!

Secure

Security is the #1 priority in Abyss Web Server. In addition to its advanced URL decoding engine which rejects malicious and suspicious requests, it features an efficient anti-hacking system which detects at an early stage hacking attempts or denial of service attacks and bans dynamically their originating IP addresses.
It is also equipped with an anti-leeching system to automatically prevent other web sites from directly linking to your images or files.

XSSI support

Abyss Web Server supports the standard eXtended Server Side Includes directives to help you create dynamic HTML pages with the least effort and without requiring the use of a scripting language. Advanced directives such as #if, #elif, #else, #endif and #set are available to enable flow control as well as variables setting and substitution constructs.

On-the-fly HTTP compression

Abyss Web Server supports the automatic compression of its responses when it dialogs with modern browsers which understand HTTP compression. This contributes to the reduction of bandwidth consumption and makes your sites load faster for most of your visitors.

IDN/Unicode compliant

Abyss Web Server supports file names and URLs written in any human language. It also supports declaring and using IDN (International Domain Names) with diacritics or non-latin scripts as in bücher.de.

Runs your ASP.NET applications

Abyss Web Server features a native support for ASP.NET 1.1 as well as 32-bit and 64-bit editions of ASP.NET 2.0, 3.5 and 4.x on Windows operating systems. You can install your ASP.NET applications and ASPX files and start serving them immediately with no performance loss and no incompatibilities issues.
Abyss Web Server's ASP.NET support is not limited in anyway and can execute small test scripts written in C# or VB.NET as well as large applications which use the advanced capabilities of ASP.NET such as custom web controls, database access, authentication, web services, XML processing, MVC, AJAX, or RIA/Silverlight.

Hosts your PHP, Perl and "Classic" ASP scripts

Abyss Web Server has been specially designed to make using scripts the simplest possible even on Windows platforms. Thanks to its CGI and ISAPI extensions interfaces, Abyss Web Server supports various scripting languages such as PHP, Perl, "Classic" ASP, Python, Ruby, Rebol and TCL.
Languages which interpreters are FastCGI-compatible (such as PHP) will even experience a significant processing speed boost on Abyss Web Server while reducing in the same time your system load.
Whether you are going to test a simple script or install and run a complex database-driven web application, Abyss Web Server is the best choice in terms of ease of configuration and optimal performance.

Supports Web application engines such as Tomcat, Jetty, node.js and ASP.NET Core Kesterel as reverse proxies

Abyss Web Server can act as a reverse proxy to provide content transparently from another Web server behind it (commonly called a back-end server.) The proxied server can be another Web server or an application server with a restricted or even a trivial HTTP support that has to be shielded from external clients.
Reverse proxying is also the recommended way to take advantage of JSP (Java Servlet Pages), Tomcat/Jetty Web applications, node.js Web applications and ASP.NET Core applications hosted on Kesterel.
The reverse proxy in Abyss Web Server supports HTTP/1.1 as well as HTTPS and will reuse connections to the back-end to optimize the response time. It can also transparently serve content from WebSocket-compliant servers since it supports the Connection: Upgrade header and HTTP protocol switching and upgrading.

Total control over the bandwidth

You can configure the total bandwidth that Abyss Web Server is allowed to use when answering the requests. You can also configure the bandwidth that is allowed for every visitor.
Finer bandwidth control is also available in Abyss Web Server X2 and can be used to configure the allowed bandwidth per file, per directory or per group of files or directories.

Password protection

Password protecting files or directories has never been easier. You can define users and groups of users and create advanced access rules with a few clicks.

Custom directory listings

With Abyss Web Server, you have a total control over the layout and the look and feel of your directory listings. You can define a template using simple SSI directives or you can write in your preferred programming language your custom directory listing script.

Virtual hosting

Abyss Web Server can serve more than one web site from the same computer. This is often called virtual hosting or support for multiple hosts. Each defined host has its specific configuration and is completely independent from other hosts. Virtual hosting is only available in the professional edition Abyss Web Server X2.

SSL/TLS support (HTTPS - Secure connections)

Abyss Web Server supports the TLS protocols including the latest TLS 1.3. It is able to accept secure connections with strong cryptography to protect your visitors' sensitive data from flowing in clear form over the Internet.
TLS support enables you to host E-commerce sites and accept credit card data with the highest level of security available in today's industry standards.

Comprehensible SSL/TLS certificates management interface

Declaring, self-signing, and requesting SSL/TLS certificates has never been easier. With Abyss Web Server, you have not to use external tools and type lengthy commands to generate keys, certificates, and CSRs. Every task related to SSL/TLS certificates can be carried out using the console (the remote Web configuration interface).

Automated provisioning and renewal of free certificates from Let's Encrypt

With the support of the ACME version 2 protocol, any host in Abyss Web Server can be served on HTTPS with a free certificate that is requested, installed, and renewed automatically from any ACME-compliant certificate authority such as Let's Encrypt® or BuyPass®.
Abyss Web Server comes with an integrated bot which manages the whole lifetime of ACME-obtained certificate without any need for external tools or utilities.

Easy dual hosts (HTTP+HTTPS) setup

Have you ever wondered how to have the same site available with http:// and https:// URLs at the same time? With Abyss Web Server, such a setup only requires an extra click when declaring your host. You can even configure it to serve some parts of the site (for example login protected areas) only with https://. In such a case, Abyss Web Server will handle automatically the redirection from the http:// to the https:// URL.

SNI support (Server Name Indication)

SNI support makes it possible to host several HTTPS enabled sites on the same IP address and on the same port with each having its own SSL certificate. SNI support lifts the old restrictions of SSL (a single certificate per IP.) Virtual hosting of HTTPS sites is now possible.

IPv6 Support

Abyss Web Server supports both IPv4 and IPv6 Internet protocols for a maximum interoperability with both legacy and modern networks.

URL Rewriting

Abyss Web Server includes a URL rewriting engine conforming to industry standards. It can help you hide the complex URLs of your Web applications and make them look more user friendly.
Although URL rewriting is usually considered as an advanced feature, it remains easily controllable in Abyss Web Server through the comprehensible user interface of the console.

Flexible logging features

Each host can share a log file with one or more hosts. It can also have its own. The choice is yours. Log files can be rotated when they reach a certain size or on a timely basis (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.) You can configure each log file to log requests using one of the standard logging formats or define your own custom format to dump special information such as the HTTP headers.

Scriptable downloading features

Abyss Web Server supports the X-Sendfile special CGI header to accelerate file service from scripts or Web applications. It also features support for restricted downloads/token-based downloads which are special URLs that cannot be hotlinked and which link to time-limited and possibly IP-limited downloads. Such URLs are to be generated by very simple scripts.

Starts when your computer boots up

Abyss Web Server can be configured to act as a Windows System Service, macOS Laucnh Daemon or Linux daemon. In such a case, you do not have to start it manually. It will be automatically launched immediately after your computer startup, even though no user is logged in, and will operate in the background.
You do not need to be a system wizard to make Abyss Web Server operate in this mode. On Windows and macOS, a few clicks on a comprehensible dialog window are sufficient.

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