Waitress

What it is

Waitress is a production-quality pure-Python WSGI server. It has no dependencies except ones which live in the Python standard library. Waitress runs on CPython on Unix and Windows under Python 2.7+ or Python 3.4+. It supports HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/1.1.

Waitress stands out for its simplicity and robustness as a pure Python WSGI server with no external dependencies, making it ideal for Pyramid applications in production environments.

When it fits — and when it doesn’t

Known weaknesses

Each one links to the public issue, changelog or docs page it came from, where we have one.

1. 01

   Limited support for HTTP/2 and beyond

   Waitress only supports HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/1.1, lacking modern protocol support which can limit performance in some use cases.

2. 02

   No built-in SSL/TLS support

   Secure connections must be handled by an external reverse proxy or additional configuration, increasing complexity for deployment.

3. 03

   Performance may degrade under heavy load compared to more optimized servers

   Being a pure-Python server, Waitress can suffer from performance bottlenecks in CPU-intensive applications when compared to servers written in lower-level languages like C.

4. 04

   Small and less active community

   The project's GitHub repository indicates a smaller contributor base and fewer updates, which can lead to slower issue resolution and feature development.

What it does well

• Multi-threaded WSGI server for production use.

• Supports HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/1.1.

• No dependencies outside the Python standard library.

Pricing

Free tier

YesOpen source — free to use

Paid from

$0

Model

Flat rate

Enterprise plan

No

Pricing not independently confirmed — check the vendor’s page.