Apache .htaccess vs httpd - does it really matter?

Question

I know this question has been asked many times and I\'ve researched it myself on Google as well but just can\'t come up with the answer I need.

My hosting company is NOT

Answer 1

Performance hit for reading the file? That's micro-optimization. Favour .htaccess. You don't need special privileges to edit it.

Also on a shared hosting site, everyone shares the httpd.conf settings so, if thats your situation, it's not applicable.

Answer 2

Well, to my knowledge, the performance difference is negilible, comparred to the computing time used for whatever's used in the .htaccess. For what's it's worth, I've seen no measurable difference by having a .htaccess file.

Answer 3

Yes, it does matter. qouting from http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/Htaccess:

The use of .htaccess files is discouraged as they can have a detrimental effect on server performance. Only use them when necessary.

Answer 4

With my test (based on: http://www.fubra.com/blog/2008/01/07/htaccess-vs-httpdconf/), the result is: the performance difference is negligible.

5000 rounds:

# htaccess Disabled
real    1m1.069s
user    0m10.956s
sys     0m9.748s

# htaccess Enabled
real    1m1.658s
user    0m11.434s
sys     0m9.848s