# Hiawatha

Open source web server for Unix-like systems, focused on security and a small footprint, with CGI, FastCGI and reverse proxy support.


Source: https://findsoftware.frbit.cloud/hiawatha/
Last reviewed: 2026-10-29
Listed since: 2026-10-29

## Record

### Links

- home: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/
- repository: https://gitlab.com/hsleisink/hiawatha
- docs: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/support

### Identity

- status: active
- maintainer: Hugo Leisink
- maintainerType: individual
- parent: unknown
- firstRelease: 2002
- hqCountry: unknown

### Kind

- category: web-server
- hosting: binary
- language: c
- runtime: binary
- runtimeMin: unknown
- basedOn: unknown

### Content

- contentStore: not applicable
- databases: not applicable
- adminUi: not applicable
- headlessApi: not applicable
- templating: not applicable
- i18n: not applicable

### Rendering and deploy

- runsAs: always-on
- renderingModes: not applicable
- installMethod: source tarball built with CMake

### License

- licenseModel: open-source
- license: GPL-2.0

### Releases

- currentMajor: 12
- latestReleaseDate: 2026-09-15

### Adoption

- githubStargazers: unknown
- packagistDownloads: not applicable
- npmWeeklyDownloads: not applicable
- contributors: 1
- pluginCount: unknown
- packagistMonthlyDownloads: unknown
- ecosystemsMonthlyDownloads: unknown
- httpArchiveSites: unknown
- wordpressActiveInstalls: unknown
- dependentRepos: unknown
- dependentPackages: unknown

### Sources

- urls: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/ (read 2026-10-29)
- urls: https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/hsleisink%2Fhiawatha (read 2026-10-29)
- urls: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/support (read 2026-10-29)
- maintainer: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/ (read 2026-10-29)
- maintainerType: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/ (read 2026-10-29)
- category: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/about (read 2026-10-29)
- language: https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/81921476/languages (read 2026-10-29)
- runtime: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/howto/compilation_and_installation (read 2026-10-29)
- runsAs: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/howto/starting_and_stopping (read 2026-10-29)
- installMethod: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/howto/compilation_and_installation (read 2026-10-29)
- installMethod: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/download (read 2026-10-29)
- installMethod: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/download (read 2026-10-29)
- installMethod: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/download (read 2026-10-29)
- installMethod: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/download (read 2026-10-29)
- installMethod: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/download (read 2026-10-29)
- license: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/download (read 2026-10-29)
- licenseModel: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/download (read 2026-10-29)
- currentMajor: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/latest (read 2026-10-29)
- latestReleaseDate: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/changelog (read 2026-10-29)
- firstRelease: https://hiawatha.leisink.net/changelog (read 2026-10-29)
- contributors: https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/81921476/repository/contributors?per_page=100 (read 2026-10-29)

## Notes

Hiawatha is an open source web server for Unix-like systems, written in C, with a focus on security. The project offers a source tarball that is built with CMake, and packages for Debian and Ubuntu, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and macOS, plus a Windows package compiled with Cygwin. The server is a long-running process that stops by its process ID, as its starting and stopping HOWTO describes. The project's support page holds its HOWTO pages on installation and configuration. Hugo Leisink maintains it under the GPL version 2.

## Worth knowing

The Debian and Ubuntu packages come from a third-party packaging repository, not from the project itself.

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Data licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Attributes are recorded, never scored; absent means unknown.
Credit, in full: FindSoftware, CC BY 4.0