How to Build a Web Server From Scratch Using Python

In this tutorial, we will be creating a webserver from scratch using python. For this program we will be using sockets as our primary building block.

First, let’s a file main.py and insert the code below.

import socket

class WebServer:
    def __init__(self, host='', port=8080):
        self.host = host
        self.port = port
        self.server_socket = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)

    def start(self):
        self.server_socket.bind((self.host, self.port))
        self.server_socket.listen(1)
        print(f'Server started on port {self.port}...')
        while True:
            conn, addr = self.server_socket.accept()
            with conn:
                request = conn.recv(1024).decode()
                if not request:
                    continue
                lines = request.split('\n')
                method, path, protocol = lines[0].split(' ')
                print(f'Received request from {addr[0]}: {request.strip()}')
                if method == 'GET':
                    if path == '/':
                        response = 'HTTP/1.1 200 OK\nContent-Type: text/html\n\n<h1>Welcome to my web server!</h1>'
                    else:
                        response = 'HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found\nContent-Type: text/html\n\n<h1>404 Not Found</h1>'
                else:
                    response = 'HTTP/1.1 405 Method Not Allowed\nContent-Type: text/html\n\n<h1>405 Method Not Allowed</h1>'
                conn.sendall(response.encode())

if __name__ == '__main__':
    server = WebServer()
    server.start()

Run the main.py and a webpage should be available as shown below.