What is LEMP stack?
LEMP is a variation of the ubiquitous LAMP stack used for developing and deploying web applications. Traditionally, LAMP consists of Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Due to its modular nature, the components can easily be swapped out. With LEMP, Apache is replaced with the lightweight yet powerful Nginx.
Linux
An open source Unix-like operating system provides the base for the stack components. Many distributions include package management systems that make installing the desired applications easy. However, these repository versions will generally not be the most current. Two of the most commonly used Linux distributions in LEMP stacks are Debian and Ubuntu.
Nginx
Nginx is an open source reverse proxy server for HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP, POP3, and IMAP protocols. It also functions as a load balancer, HTTP cache, and web server (origin server). It has a strong focus on high concurrency, high performance and low memory usage. The HTML5 Boilerplate project has sample server configuration files to improve performance and security.
MySQL
MySQL is the second most widely used open source relational database management system. A community-developed fork, MariaDB, is led by the original developers. It aims to be a drop-in replacement.
PHP
PHP is a server-side scripting language designed for web development. The scripting role can also be filled with Python or Perl. Servers such as Gunicorn or uWSGI can be used in conjunction with Nginx to serve these applications.
