HTTP/2 represents a major evolution of the web protocol, introducing multiplexing, header compression, and server push capabilities that dramatically improve page load times without requiring changes to your application code.
Key HTTP/2 Features for Hosting
Multiplexing allows multiple requests and responses to share a single TCP connection simultaneously, eliminating the head-of-line blocking that plagued HTTP/1.1. This means browsers no longer need multiple connections to download page resources in parallel.
HPACK header compression reduces the overhead of HTTP headers significantly. Since modern web pages may generate hundreds of requests, each with repetitive headers, this compression translates to meaningful bandwidth savings, especially on mobile connections.
Enabling HTTP/2 on your web server is straightforward. Both Nginx and Apache support it natively, and most modern CDNs enable it by default. The only prerequisite is HTTPS, as all major browsers require TLS for HTTP/2 connections.