How to Set Up OpenLiteSpeed on a VPS: The Nginx Alternative with Built-In Cache and LSCache

OpenLiteSpeed (OLS) is the open-source version of LiteSpeed Web Server — the same technology behind many commercial WordPress managed hosting platforms. Its built-in LiteSpeed Cache (LSCache) for WordPress eliminates the need for WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, or Varnish. OLS includes native LSAPI PHP handling (faster than FastCGI), HTTP/3 QUIC support, and a WebAdmin panel for GUI configuration.

OpenLiteSpeed vs Nginx: When to Choose OLS

Step 1: Install OpenLiteSpeed

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Add official LiteSpeed repository
wget -O - https://repo.litespeed.sh | sudo bash

sudo apt install -y openlitespeed lsphp82 lsphp82-common lsphp82-mysql \
  lsphp82-imagick lsphp82-redis lsphp82-imap lsphp82-intl lsphp82-curl

# Start and enable OLS
sudo systemctl enable lsws
sudo systemctl start lsws

# Set WebAdmin password
sudo /usr/local/lsws/admin/misc/admpass.sh

Access WebAdmin at http://YOUR_VPS_IP:7080 with the credentials you just set.

Step 2: Configure PHP Settings

sudo nano /usr/local/lsws/lsphp82/etc/php/8.2/litespeed/php.ini

memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 128M
post_max_size = 128M
max_execution_time = 300
max_input_vars = 5000
date.timezone = UTC

; OPcache settings
opcache.enable = 1
opcache.memory_consumption = 128
opcache.max_accelerated_files = 10000
opcache.interned_strings_buffer = 16
opcache.revalidate_freq = 60

sudo systemctl restart lsws

Step 3: Download and Install WordPress

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/wordpress
cd /tmp
wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar xzf latest.tar.gz --strip-components=1 -C /var/www/wordpress
rm latest.tar.gz
sudo chown -R nobody:nogroup /var/www/wordpress
cd /var/www/wordpress
cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
sudo nano wp-config.php   # Enter your database credentials

Step 4: Configure MariaDB

sudo mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE wordpress CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'wordpress'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword!';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO 'wordpress'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 5: Configure OpenLiteSpeed Virtual Host

In WebAdmin (port 7080):

1. Virtual Hosts → Add → Name: wordpress, Root: /var/www/wordpress
2. Script Handler → Add → Suffix: php, Type: LiteSpeed SAPI, Name: lsphp82
3. Rewrite → Enable Rewrite: Yes, Auto Load from .htaccess: Yes
4. Listeners → Default → Virtual Host Mappings → Add: yourdomain.com → wordpress

Create the WordPress .htaccess:

sudo nano /var/www/wordpress/.htaccess

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

Step 6: Configure SSL with Let’s Encrypt

sudo apt install -y certbot
sudo certbot certonly --webroot -w /var/www/wordpress/ \
  -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com

In WebAdmin: Listeners → Add HTTPS Listener → Port 443 → SSL tab → configure certificate paths:

• Private Key: /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem
• Certificate: /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem
• Enable QUIC: Yes

Step 7: Install and Configure LiteSpeed Cache Plugin

In WordPress Admin: Plugins → Add New → Search “LiteSpeed Cache” → Install and Activate.

Recommended settings:

• Cache → Cache Control Settings: Enable Cache ✓ | Cache TTL: 604800 (1 week)
• Cache → Browser: Enable Browser Cache ✓ | Browser Cache TTL: 31557600
• Page Optimization → CSS: Minify ✓ | Combine ✓ | HTTP/2 Push ✓
• Page Optimization → JS: Minify ✓ | Combine ✓ | Load JS Deferred ✓
• Page Optimization → HTML: Minify ✓
• Page Optimization → Media: Lazy Load Images ✓ | WebP Replacement ✓

Step 8: Manage OpenLiteSpeed

# Graceful restart (apply configuration changes)
sudo systemctl reload lsws

# Full restart
sudo systemctl restart lsws

# Check status
sudo systemctl status lsws

# View error logs
sudo tail -f /usr/local/lsws/logs/error.log

# View access logs
sudo tail -f /usr/local/lsws/logs/access.log

Expected Performance Results

Getting Started

OpenLiteSpeed with LiteSpeed Cache is an excellent out-of-the-box WordPress performance stack. Ubuntu VPS plans at VPS.DO support OLS installation from the official LiteSpeed repository. The 2 vCPU / 2 GB RAM plan comfortably handles a single high-traffic WordPress site with LSCache enabled — cache hits use negligible PHP resources and are served directly by the OLS cache layer.

Conclusion

OpenLiteSpeed with LiteSpeed Cache delivers WordPress performance (90+ PageSpeed scores, sub-20ms TTFB for cached pages) without requiring Varnish, Redis page caching, or paid cache plugins. The built-in LSAPI PHP handler outperforms FastCGI, the native LSCache module outperforms file-based caches, and HTTP/3 QUIC support makes OLS the most feature-complete open-source web server for WordPress hosting out of the box.