⚠️ Project Status: Unmaintained
Cherokee is no longer actively developed. The last official release was v1.2.103 in December 2013 — over 10 years ago. This page documents Cherokee’s history as a historical reference.
| Year |
Event |
| 2008 |
Cherokee web server project initiated by Álvaro López Ortega |
| 2009 |
First stable releases (0.x series) |
| 2010 |
Cherokee 1.0 released - major milestone with full admin UI |
| 2011 |
Cherokee 1.2 series begins - performance improvements |
| 2012 |
Cherokee 1.2.101 released (February 2012) |
| 2013 |
Cherokee 1.2.103 released (December 2013) - last official release |
| 2014-2018 |
Minimal activity, website updates cease |
| 2018 |
Copyright notice last updated (© 2001-2018) |
| 2020 |
FreeBSD port removed (unmaintained, uses EOLed Python 2.7) |
| 2023 |
OpenSSL 3 incompatibility issues reported (unresolved) |
| 2024 |
Community Docker builds continue (managedkaos fork, v1.2.104) |
| 2026 |
Project remains unmaintained |
Cherokee was created by Álvaro López Ortega as an open-source web server designed to be:
- High-performance - Event-driven architecture for handling many connections
- Easy to configure - Web-based admin interface (Cherokee-Admin)
- Feature-rich - Support for FastCGI, SCGI, uWSGI, SSI, and more
The project gained attention for its innovative approach to configuration through a graphical web interface, eliminating the need to manually edit configuration files.
- Speed: Written in C with optimized event handling
- Simplicity: Web-based administration for all configuration tasks
- Flexibility: Support for multiple deployment scenarios (reverse proxy, load balancer, virtual hosting)
- Lightweight: Low memory footprint compared to Apache
During its active years, Cherokee saw regular releases and feature additions:
- First major stable release
- Complete Cherokee-Admin interface
- Support for modern web technologies (PHP, Python, Ruby via FastCGI/uWSGI)
- Built-in TLS/SSL support
- Load balancing capabilities
The 1.2 series brought significant improvements:
| Version |
Release Date |
Key Changes |
| 1.2.0 |
2011 |
Performance optimizations, new UI |
| 1.2.98 |
2012 |
Bug fixes, stability improvements |
| 1.2.99 |
2012 |
Security updates |
| 1.2.101 |
Feb 2012 |
Minor fixes |
| 1.2.102 |
2013 |
Final minor release |
| 1.2.103 |
Dec 2013 |
Last official release |
- Real-time monitoring - Traffic graphs and statistics
- Advanced load balancing - Multiple algorithms (round-robin, ip_hash, least_conn)
- Video streaming - Optimized streaming support
- Traffic shaping - Bandwidth management
- Authentication - Multiple auth backends (htpasswd, LDAP, MySQL)
- URL rewriting - Apache-compatible rewrite rules
- Caching - Built-in content caching
¶ Decline and Abandonment (2014-Present)
¶ Why Cherokee Was Abandoned
Several factors contributed to Cherokee’s decline:
- Rise of Nginx - Nginx gained massive adoption (2012-2015), offering similar performance with better enterprise support
- Caddy emergence - Caddy (2015) offered easier configuration with automatic HTTPS
- Maintenance burden - Single maintainer model became unsustainable
- Technology shifts - Containerization, HTTP/2, TLS 1.3 required significant rewrites
- Python 2.7 dependency - Admin UI relied on Python 2.7, which reached EOL in 2020
- December 2013: Last official release (v1.2.103)
- 2014-2018: Sporadic website updates
- 2018: Copyright notice last updated
- 2020: FreeBSD port removed as unmaintained
- 2023: OpenSSL 3 issues reported on GitHub (unresolved)
- 2024: Community Docker builds (managedkaos) continue
Cherokee introduced several features that influenced later web servers:
- Web-based administration - Predated similar features in other servers
- Configuration validation - Real-time syntax checking
- Distribution-friendly packaging - Early adopter of PPA and EPEL
- Event-driven architecture - Efficient connection handling
During 2008-2013, Cherokee offered:
- Better performance than Apache for static content and reverse proxy
- Easier configuration than Nginx (web UI vs. manual config files)
- Lower resource usage than competing solutions
For homelab users and small deployments, Cherokee was an attractive option during its era.
| Aspect |
Status |
| Development |
❌ Inactive (10+ years) |
| Security Patches |
❌ None since 2013 |
| Official Releases |
❌ Last: v1.2.103 (Dec 2013) |
| Website |
⚠️ Online but static |
| GitHub Repository |
⚠️ Archived/inactive (424 open issues) |
| Package Availability |
❌ Removed from modern repos |
| Community Support |
❌ Minimal |
- OpenSSL 3 incompatibility - Cannot build with modern TLS libraries
- Python 2.7 dependency - Admin UI requires EOL Python version
- CVE-2020-10108 - DoS vulnerability unpatched
- Build failures - Autoconf/automake incompatibilities on modern systems
- libcherokee-base.so errors - Shared library issues on current distros
- managedkaos/cherokee - Docker builds (v1.2.104, Nov 2024)
- GitHub: https://github.com/managedkaos/cherokee
- Docker:
ghcr.io/managedkaos/cherokee:main
- Note: Community project, not officially endorsed
Cherokee represents an important chapter in web server evolution:
- Bridge era (2008-2013): Between Apache dominance and Nginx adoption
- UX innovation: Web-based configuration ahead of its time
- Performance focus: Event-driven architecture before it was standard
- Open source model: Community-driven development with single maintainer
- Maintenance sustainability: Single-maintainer projects risk abandonment
- Dependency management: Python 2.7 EOL broke build chain
- Security responsiveness: Unpatched vulnerabilities limit production use
- Technology adaptation: HTTP/2, TLS 1.3, containerization required rewrites
Any questions?
Feel free to contact us. Find all contact information on our contact page.