Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

Unsafehttp is a minimal web server written in C from scratch, designed to run on single-board computers like the Orange Pi. Built as a learning project to explore C programming, Unix socket programming, and… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

1. 1
   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 →

2. 2
   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 →

3. 3
   Micro HTTP server in 22 lines of C▲223

   This post is from a protected account.

   2021 · twitter.com · its alternatives →

4. 4
   My embeddable C/C++ webserver▲84

   2011 · github.com · its alternatives →

5. 5
   I built a web framework in C▲420

   a lightweight web framework in c. Contribute to ashtonjamesd/lavandula development by creating an account on GitHub.

   2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

6. 6
   Hellepoll is a blazingly-fast async HTTP server written in C++▲35

   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 :(

   2011 · github.com · its alternatives →

7. 7
   Hosting my website using my C web server▲303

   Custom web server for my blog. Contribute to cozis/BlogTech development by creating an account on GitHub.

   2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

8. 8
   A pure bash web server. No netcat, socat, etc.▲224

   A purely bash web server, no socat, netcat, etc... - GitHub - dzove855/Bash-web-server: A purely bash web server, no socat, netcat, etc...

   2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

9. 9
   I created a URL shortener that can be entirely hosted on GitHub Pages▲355

   Minimal URL shortener that can be entirely hosted on GitHub pages. - nelsontky/gh-pages-url-shortener

   2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

10. 10
    AsmHTTPd – The tiniest webserver ever written (Linux, x86_64 assembly)▲8

    A minimalist HTTP server for Linux, written in x86_64 assembly - jcalvinowens/asmhttpd

    2014 · github.com · its alternatives →

11. 11SA
    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 →

12. 12
    A dynamic C (Hot reloading) module-based Web Framework▲128

    A modular web framework for C, inspired by kernel modules. Dynamically upload and compile C code at runtime to build REST APIs, WebSocket services, and more. Includes support for JSON (Jansson), SQLite, OpenSSL, and streaming large data efficiently. - joexbayer/c-web-modules

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

13. 13IB
    I built a memory-safe web server in Rust▲90

    The web server that I am building is currently in beta, so any feedback is welcome.

    2025 · ferronweb.org · its alternatives →

14. 14
    Nano-web – a low latency one binary webserver designed for serving SPAs▲157

    I'd found that whilst there's a lot of good options out there for webservers, I was looking for something that is a single deployable binary for usage with containers or unikernels and solves some of the problems that you get with other setups like nginx. It uses a single compiled binary, it's going to have extremely low latency on account of caching all files in memory at runtime, and also the fun feature and really useful that's good for SPAs (e.g. Vite) or things like Astro is that you can inject configuration variables into it at runtime and access them from within your frontend code, so…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

15. 15
    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 →

16. 16
    Running a simple local HTTP server in a web page▲75

    Start a local HTTP server without any tools, just open a web page. - EtherDream/http-server-online

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

17. 17NC
    Nanosecond C message logger▲131

    Hello, Some time ago I did a data logger for fun, just to check if I could beat the performance of an old C++ project of mine (mini-async-log) and to avoid letting my multithreading-C skills rust when on a non-programming gig (using Yocto/OE, very little programming). This project is a BSD licensed, producer-wait-free (when using thread-local storage) generic message logger with high performance, decent test coverage, and type-safe C strings (requires C11 or C++ compiler). It was a shame to let this project to die unknown, as I think that it has potential to be used on some niches as…

    2019 · its alternatives →

18. 18
    The HTTP Garden – A Parser Vulnerability Research Tool▲75

    I wrote this tool during an internship at Narf Industries in 2023. It's a REPL that allows for quickly developing, testing, and fuzzing for HTTP request smuggling attack payloads. I started the internship having never worked with web servers, and have now found over 100 HTTP implementation bugs. I attribute this mostly to the ease of experimentation in the Garden. REPL-oriented fuzzing is just a really good interface for finding parsing bugs. It's pretty neat to able to run a differential fuzzer, categorize and display all the discovered discrepancies, then let a human pick through them and…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

19. 19
    CSS Gridish▲133

    Greetings, This is a link to our learning guide to make your own MCP server in C/C++ (with no other dependencies). If you wanted to make one from scratch but needed some insight into dealing with MCP messages: the I/O flow, JSON parsing, and request dispatch, grab the teaching version tagged mcp/teaching/v1.0.0 in the repository. The JSON parsing in C would have been a hurdle, but then there's this amusing story: Eric: "Let's create a helloWorld MCP server in C." Gemini: "That will be somewhat difficult, there are easier ways." Eric: "Why is it difficult??" (the second…

    2018 · ibm.github.io · its alternatives →

20. 20
    I wrote a minimal memory allocator in C▲137

    A fun toy memory allocator (not thread safe, that's a future TODO). I also wanted to explain how I approached it, so I also wrote a tutorial blog post (~20 minute read) covering the code which you can find the link to in the README.

    Nov 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

21. 21
    QuickServ – User-friendly web server▲62

    Dangerously user-friendly web server for quick prototyping and hackathons - jstrieb/quickserv

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

22. 22
    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 →

23. 23
    bashttp - a very (very) simple web server in Bash▲92

    µServer in Bash. Contribute to EddySchauHai/bashttp development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

24. 24MP
    My platforming game written in C 89▲127

    I have been working on this game somewhat sparsely for the past three years or so. However, it is still in a very early stage, and there is a lot of work to do. One of my friends encouraged me to post about it here, since he felt people might find interesting how I don’t use any libraries for it. The game can be played on a browser by virtue of WebAssembly. There are native ports using either MiniFB or SDL2, but you have to build those yourself. I decided to write the game in C because I feel like it is a simple language that a lot of people can understand well enough, and I didn’t think I…

    2023 · zamfofex.neocities.org · its alternatives →

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