== link:index.html[Index] -> link:basics.html[Getting started]

Why Cherokee?
-------------

Welcome to the Cherokee 1.0 documentation. Cherokee is a
high-performance web server. It is very fast, flexible and easy to
configure. In fact, it is the fastest web server there is. Check out
the link:http://www.cherokee-project.com/benchmarks.html[benchmarks]
and see for yourself. It offers support for the widespread
technologies nowadays:
FastCGI, SCGI, PHP, CGI, SSI, TLS and SSL encrypted connections,
Virtual hosts, Authentication, on the fly encoding, Load Balancing,
Apache compatible log files, Data Base Balancer, downtime-free updates
and upgrades, Reverse HTTP Proxy, and much more.

It is highly efficient, extremely lightweight and provides rock solid
stability. Among its many features there is one that deserves special
credit: a user friendly interface called
link:other_bundle_cherokee-admin.html[cherokee-admin] that is provided for a
no-hassle configuration of every single feature of the server. This
administration interface allows you to configure the web server
without having to worry about editing a text file written with a
certain syntax.

image::media/images/admin_index.png[Cherokee Admin interface]

Unlike many other web servers out there, Cherokee gracefully handles
many concurrent connections, has a low memory footprint, and provides
load balancing facilities. As such, it is suitable for usage among a
wide variety of systems, from tiny embedded devices to huge enterprise
grade infrastructures. It is also multi-platform, offering native
performance for Unix, Linux and Windows systems.

By simply upgrading your existing web server to Cherokee, you can
literally multiply your existing hardware's performance, extending its
life cycle or allowing you to have a smaller, more efficient, compact
and easier to maintain IT infrastructure.

Best of all, Cherokee is free software, has a thoroughly designed
architecture, is completely modular and has a clean and neat code
base. Anyone and everyone can have access to the code for study and
tinkering, thus allowing you to customize, modify, or extend everything
to suit specific needs. It is also very actively maintained, and every
interesting feature request is carefully considered.

As you can see, Cherokee comes with many
link:other_goodies.html[goodies] that allow to achieve unprecedented
performance.

But don't trust everything you are told. Check out the benchmarks and
the rest of the documentation to learn more, and give it a try to
squeeze your hardware to the fullest. You will not be disappointed.
That you can trust.
