SeviceStack: fastcgi-mono-server4 vs self-hosting

Question

Are there benefits in running ServiceStack over fastcgi-mono-server4 vs self-hosting when all that is needed is to expose web services (no ASP.NET or static content)?

I'm using nginx reverse proxy in both cases.

Answer 1

Self-hosting will mean that you will need to run your mono-webserver with root privileges. With fastcgi, however, it is nginx which runs with elevated permissions, and I think this is a very well audited and globally-used webserver, which may be harder to break into.

No only it is a security concern but also a provisioning one: there are many hosting services on the internet which only let you run your web apps without privileges (because you may be sharing the server with other customers).

(Remember, the reason of requiring root privileges to run a webserver, is because you cannot bind to ports lower than 1024 without having them. An alternative workaround to this is bind to a port higher than 1024, and then redirect the HTTP 80 port to this port at the load balancer level.)