IBM WebSphere Application Server vs NGINX Plus comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM WebSphere Application S...
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Application Server (5th)
NGINX Plus
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (5th)
 

Market share comparison

As of June 2024, in the Application Infrastructure category, the market share of IBM WebSphere Application Server is 12.5% and it increased by 22.8% compared to the previous year. The market share of NGINX Plus is 10.9% and it decreased by 6.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Infrastructure
Unique Categories:
Application Server
12.3%
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
9.8%
 

Featured Reviews

SakthivelVeeramuthu - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 11, 2024
Integration capabilities are good, and handles connectivity between applications and databases
Network Deployment is the most useful feature for scalability. It has many features within the standard WebSphere Application Server edition. WebSphere's security meets our application's needs. For security, we can integrate WebSphere with LDAP. Additionally, we can configure SSO certificates or third-party certificates for secure communication between our application and even the database. We can use SSL certificates to secure both frontend and backend connections. Combined with LDAP and SSL certificates, the security features are excellent. Integration capabilities are good. That's a key strength of WebSphere. It integrates easily with various other software vendors, which is why many companies use it.
Derrick Brockel - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 14, 2023
The product is resilient and reasonably priced, but support and troubleshooting could be a challenge
We use the solution for application transactions. It is used for our corporate business and customer-facing applications The solution enables good messaging between two data centers. The product is resilient. It provides a single API. It is a pretty solid solution. The solution does transactions…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The solution is very stable and robust."
"Security: It is compatible with the latest Java 8 security features, supports FIPS 140-2 and NIST SP 800-53 with strong ciphers and cryptography keys, and supports TLS 1.2 completely. Also, configuring client and server certificates is relatively easy."
"We needed this type of integration and WebShepere is the best tool for it."
"The thing about WebSphere, as opposed to other ones that I am aware of such as JBoss and Liberty, is that WebSphere has the most comprehensive scaffolding available to it."
"The VPN service is quite useful."
"It does integrate well with the Tivoli Federated Identity Management system."
"It has good stability of the application server in the long term compared to other solutions."
"As compared to other applications, it has tremendous support. We have built internal capability so that we use it extensively internally. It is also easier to use with the outside data. You can write in ESQL, Java, or any other technology that you want to use for development. So, it is a lot more flexible in the language that it supports."
"Its versatility and capabilities make it invaluable for implementing patches and fixes when necessary."
"This solution has everything."
"I find the solution’s community support and documentation most valuable. Compared to HAProxy, have found a lot of documentation and community support on Quora. If you would be asking me as a developer whether to choose this product, I would recommend this since it has good community support, documentation, and signature updates. The configuration of HAProxy is also very tedious. However, NGINX’s configuration is very simple."
"The product is lightweight and fast."
"NGINX Plus' most valuable feature is the ingress controller."
"The product is resilient."
"​The flexibility of its modules allow it to be scalable.​"
"The robust software architecture allows for it to be scalable and very stable."
 

Cons

"Initial setup is very simple. Just use the IBM Installation Manager and add the packages. The install wizard takes care of the rest. The only thing that can be difficult is to find the right packages on the IBM website, because of all the changes that IBM does on its website(s)."
"The solution could improve the integration."
"The footprint could be reduced so that we can use a smaller virtual machine to run the application. We could also use more scripts. I would like this solution to be more script oriented, rather than GUI oriented."
"IBM needs to pay attention to market changes more quickly. We now have Java 9 and very soon Java EE8. We do not want to wait for two or three years after their release until they are supported by the new version."
"The licensing could be improved, and I would like it to give the longevity of the lifespan of the visions. In the next release, I would like to be able to download and extract the files so that I can just use my application server."
"It should be able to serve more concurrent requests like Oracle. Oracle has more powerful stability, availability, and real-time serving."
"Installing or configuring a WAS server instance as a Windows Service causes a lot of problems, especially when the server needs credentials to stop."
"The availability of the solution needs improvement."
"Only improvement needed that I would point to is scalability. With it, I mean clusterized organisation on a low level. At the moment, the best alternative is RHEL HA."
"Our most challenging part was to run an older PHP website reverse-proxied through NGINX. That was not fun."
"I would like the configuration process to be more simplified."
"Improvement needed in NGINX Plus could focus on optimizing memory usage for users."
"The biggest room for improvement would be to allow NGINX Core machines to cluster for memory zones in some way with a plug and play module. ​"
"If NGINX brings some features for health check in the open source version, it would be better. ​"
"The drawback is that you must obtain a license for everything."
"The solution must improve its performance."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't remember the price, but there are no additional costs."
"My company is on a perpetual or permanent license agreement with IBM WebSphere Application Server. There's also a pay-per-use option, but customers rarely choose that option. Most of the customers are on the perpetual license deal that's all-inclusive. As the license cost is quite expensive, I'm rating it two out of five."
"There is an Eclipse Plugin provided by IBM, so no need to buy IBM Rational Application Developer or Rational Software Architect tools."
"We pay around $200,000 annually."
"We used to pay about $100,000-$120,000 US or somewhere around there. That was a bit cost-prohibitive for us to continue."
"The price of this product is higher than that of competitors."
"Room for improvement would only be in the licensing. As with all IBM products the licensing can be complex and expensive. Bargain well and try to get as much discount as possible. Discounts of 85% are possible. Without the discount, I think the product is overrated."
"When you purchase Maximo, you get WebSphere for free."
"​NGINX Plus is worth it, if you need it. If you do not need the features or support, the free and open source package is more than capable. ​"
"HAProxy is cheaper than NGINX."
"Nginx is free. I don't have experience with the Plus version."
"The list price of NGINX Plus is close to $5,500."
"​NGINX is a free tool in Brazil. There are some companies which do support it.​"
"The solution is free, but you can spend a lot of money with a complex solution."
"I am not so happy with their pricing policy, but this is not the worse thing in my life. I can tolerate it."
"The cost is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
30%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
7%
Insurance Company
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM WebSphere Application Server?
Network Deployment is the most useful feature for scalability. It has many features within the standard WebSphere Application Server edition.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM WebSphere Application Server?
It's expensive. I'd rate the pricing nine out of ten, with one being inexpensive and ten being expensive.
What needs improvement with IBM WebSphere Application Server?
While WebSphere mostly supports IBM HTTP Server (IHS) as the web server plugin, I think it would be beneficial if it also supported Apache and NGINX web servers. That would give customers more flex...
Which is better - IIS or NGINX Plus?
IIS is a flexible, secure, and manageable web server to host anything on the web. IIS’s scalable and open architecture can handle the most demanding tasks. From media streaming to web applications,...
What do you like most about NGINX Plus?
It performs very well. That's one of the primary reasons we use NGINX.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NGINX Plus?
There's an open-source version of NGINX that is free. There's also NGINX Plus, which is a paid version with additional features.
 

Also Known As

WebSphere Application Server
NGINX
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

TalkTalk, Property management group, E.SUN Bank, Ohio National Financial Services, Aviarc, Cincom Systems, FJA-US, D+H, Staples, Michigan Municipal League
Locaweb, AppNexus, Wix, Reliam, Montana Interactive, MuleSoft, Warpwire, Discovery Education, InkaBinka, WordPress.com, Gogo, GOV.UK, NASA
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM WebSphere Application Server vs. NGINX Plus and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
787,061 professionals have used our research since 2012.