Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Hellepoll is a blazingly-fast async HTTP server written in C++

This is based on an approach I made for a very high performance message and video multiplexing server. The project died, but I'm glad I get to share the a basic version with some http test code now. I admit this is the second time I've tried to show this off here today; I posted earlier but it got lost when no-one was watching :(

Hellepoll is an asynchronous HTTP server built in C++ designed for high-performance applications. It draws from the creator's earlier work on a message and video multiplexing system. The server emphasizes speed and… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Hellepoll is a blazingly-fast async HTTP server written in C++ launched in 2011; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1UT
unsafehttp – tiny web server from scratch in C, running on an orange pi▲87
Hey HN, I wanted to get more familiar with C programming, *nix socket programming and C compilation, so I wrote this "web" ""server"". It's running on a tiny SBC in my office, and there's as little as possible between you and it. Happy for you to try and break it, hopefully with something more interesting than a DoS though :) Please let me know if you find any issues.
2025 · unsafehttp.benren.au · its alternatives →
2
ZeroHTTPd: A web server to teach Linux performance, with benchmarks▲472
Articles in this series Part I. Iterative ServersPart II. Forking ServersPart III. Pre-forking ServersPart IV. Threaded ServersPart V. Pre-threaded ServersPart VI: poll-based serverPart VII: epoll-…
2019 · unixism.net · its alternatives →
3
My embeddable C/C++ webserver▲84
2011 · github.com · its alternatives →
4
I built a small browser engine from scratch in C++▲146
Hi HN! Korean high school senior here, about to start CS in college. I built a browser engine from scratch in C++ to understand how browsers work. First time using C++, 8 weeks of development, lots of debugging—but it works! Features: - HTML parsing with error correction - CSS cascade and inheritance - Block/inline layout engine - Async image loading + caching - Link navigation + history Hardest parts: - String parsing(html, css) - Rendering - Image Caching & Layout Reflowing What I learned (beyond code): - Systematic debugging is crucial - Ship with known bugs rather than chase…
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
5DA
DriftDB – an open source WebSocket backend for real-time apps▲367
Hey HN! I’ve written a bunch of WebSocket servers over the years to do simple things like state synchronization, WebRTC signaling, and notifying a client when a backend job was run. I realized that if I had a simple way to create a private, temporary, mini-redis that the client could talk to directly, it would save a lot of time. So we created DriftDB. In addition to the open source server that you can run yourself, we also provide https://jamsocket.live where you can use an instance we host on Cloudflare’s edge (~13ms round trip latency from my home in NY). You may have seen my…
2023 · driftdb.com · its alternatives →
6
Drogon – A C++14/17 based high performance HTTP application framework▲189
Drogon: A C++14/17/20 based HTTP web application framework running on Linux/macOS/Unix/Windows - drogonframework/drogon
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
7
Pure C Asynchronous HTTP Framework▲80
Asynchronous C networking library with HTTP server, WebSockets, reverse proxy, HTTP/2 gRPC client, TLS and event loop. - Softmotions/iwnet
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
8SA
Shhhbb, an SSH BBS▲188
Hello all :) I made this BBS for fun and thought you all would enjoy it. It's not perfect, but it's been a fun exercise! see it: https://asciinema.org/a/Emg6SWrXMV6cehfQxrw1GRu75 try it: ssh -p 2223 shhhbb.com host it: https://github.com/donuts-are-good/shhhbb/releases/latest why? Every year I challenge myself in some new way, this year it is to push one project per week. You might recognize my static site generator [0] or my releaser for go [1] from previous posts as one of these weekly projects. If you want to join me in doing this, it's…
2023 · donuts-are-good.github.io · its alternatives →
9IM
I made a browser-based RTS game▲212
I've posted this game here before, hopefully a repost is fine as the game has changed quite a bit (improved AI, improved mapeditor, much quicker gameplay, etc). Game is based on JavaScript/Canvas and WebSockets. On the browser side the map is pre-rendered (as a background image), just the mobile units/buildings and animations are dynamically rendered. The lobby server is made in node.js, but the game server is C++ for performance reasons (mainly the pathfinding). I found the C++ WebSocket libraries out there to be too difficult to use so I made my own based on the rfc. Overall I…
2022 · battle-of-flags.com · its alternatives →
10SH
Scheme HTTP server with transparent async – 222k req/s▲17
Mar 2026 · hyper.dev · its alternatives →
11
A little web server in C▲178
A little web server written in C for Linux. Supports: CGI, Reverse Proxy. Single threaded using I/O multiplexing (select).
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
12
I built an HTTP/2 server in C++ to learn the protocol and language▲11
I wanted to learn more about the HTTP/2 protocol but also deep dive into modern C++ development. I'm currently using it to host my personal web site - https://www.roberthargreaves.com. I've also blogged a bit about the development process, hosting options and steps I took to harden the application against attack - https://blog.roberthargreaves.com/2026/01/03/building-hostin... It's by no means a complete implementation of HTTP/2, but I think I've achieved the main aims I was hoping to achieve with it! I would love some feedback though from…
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
13
Faasta – A self-hosted Serverless platform for WASM-wasi-HTTP in Rust▲95
I've just released an early version off my project I've been working on for a few months now and would love some feedback. https://github.com/fourlexboehm/faasta I was surprised there isn't yet an open/source and standards compliant way to host wasi-http functions in a way that takes advantages of WASM, a multi tenanted application. If you're not familiar with wasi, Compared to something like AWS Lambda, this approach is much more efficient as a single process can serve 1000s of function invocations concurrently and asynchronously, instead requiring an entire VM.…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
14
tquic_client▲92
A high-performance CLI to benchmark HTTP/3 servers
2024 · crates.io · its alternatives →
15
BinaryRPC – Lightweight WebSocket-based RPC framework in modern C++▲78
Hi HN, I’m a recent CS graduate. During the past few months I wrote BinaryRPC, an open-source RPC framework in modern C++20 focused on low-latency, binary WebSocket messaging. Why I built it * Wanted first-class session support, pluggable QoS levels and a simple middleware chain (global, specific, multi handler) without extra JSON/XML parsing. * Easy developer experience A quick feature list * Binary WebSocket frames – minimal overhead * Built-in session layer (login / reconnect / heartbeat) * QoS1 / QoS2 with automatic ACK & retry * Plugin system – rooms, msgpack, etc.…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
16
Open-source non-blocking NIO Java HTTP Server▲59
A full featured, stand-alone, high-performance HTTP server and client written entirely in plain Java - FusionAuth/java-http
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
17
A modern CGI web framework for C++▲5
Hi, I work on this library because I like the simplicity of CGI and enjoy building things with C++. It is based on asio and my own implementation of FastCGI, and it works on both Linux and Windows. I have just released the new version and created a simple live demo that you can check out here: https://asyncgi-guestbook.eelnet.org
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
18
MCpp Server – A fast and efficent Minecraft server written in C++▲17
Fast and super efficient Minecraft Server written in C++ - Noeli14/MCppServer
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
19
80s, a minimalistic HTTP server with hot-code reloads▲5
280 kB minimalistic HTTP server with async I/O and hot-code reloading - diznq/80s
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
20
Nuster – A HTTP/2 web cache accelerator▲8
A high performance HTTP proxy cache server and RESTful NoSQL cache server based on HAProxy - jiangwenyuan/nuster
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
21
I wrote a load balancer with XDP and Go▲15
Facebook's Katran looked too scary (and I don't do C++), so I thought I would investigate using XDP/eBPF to redirect packets at high speed and Go to do the control plane work of health-checking backed servers and managing configuration. With luck the resulting binary should be easy to deploy by non-developers. It's still not mature, but seems to work. Code was written in a very exploratory manner, and I'm not a developer so it is quite shocking at the moment, but I aim to improve it. It is intended to be horizontally scalable with ECMP and has been tested on service providing…
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
22
Pings 8000 servers in 11 seconds: Parallel HTTP/SSH/TCP/Ping library▲22
Fast Parallel Async HTTP/SSH/TCP/UDP/Ping Client Java Library. Aggregate 100,000 APIs & send anywhere in 20 lines of code. Ping/HTTP Calls 8000 servers in 12 seconds. (Akka) www.parallec.io - eBay/parallec
2015 · github.com · its alternatives →
23CA
Created a Node.js's addon that can handle 1M req/s▲7
I’ve been experimenting with building a Node.js HTTP framework using Rust + Hyper with N-Api. The project started as a fully synchronous server, but I recently patched it to support async (Tokio/Hyper). That change alone nearly doubled throughput in benchmarks. What’s different: * Built directly on Hyper, no heavy abstraction * napi glue for Node.js bindings * Minimal core (sync and async engines side-by-side) * Focused on raw performance, not plugins (yet) This is still experimental and not production-ready. I’d like feedback on: * Async API design — does it feel ergonomic? *…
2025 · its alternatives →
24IM
I made a private self-destructing image hosting site in Golang▲15
So I'm a junior Go dev and I made a small site that allows me to share images with someone privately and securely, and give me control over how many times the private link can be shared and how long the image will be accessible for. There are similar services to this one, but they are either convoluted with ads, or require sign-up, or expect you to fill out a survey or something. picburn is small, safe, and has no interest (nor the code or the server space) for storing your uploads. give it a try if it fits your usecase and let me know what you think. Note: there was a typo in the url
Aug 2026 · picburn.xyz · its alternatives →

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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →