CGI vs FastCGI

Developers should learn CGI to understand the historical evolution of web technologies and for legacy system maintenance, as some older applications still rely on it meets developers should use fastcgi when building web applications that need to handle high traffic volumes efficiently, as it reduces server load by reusing processes across requests. Here's our take.

CGI

Nice Pick

Developers should learn CGI to understand the historical evolution of web technologies and for legacy system maintenance, as some older applications still rely on it

Pros

• It's also useful for educational purposes to grasp how server-side processing works at a low level, such as in simple scripting tasks or embedded systems where lightweight solutions are needed
• Related to: http-protocol, server-side-scripting

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

FastCGI

Developers should use FastCGI when building web applications that need to handle high traffic volumes efficiently, as it reduces server load by reusing processes across requests

Pros

• It is particularly useful for scripting languages like PHP, Python, or Perl in production environments where performance and scalability are critical
• Related to: nginx, apache-http-server

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. CGI is a concept while FastCGI is a protocol. We picked CGI based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

CGI wins

Based on overall popularity. CGI is more widely used, but FastCGI excels in its own space.