Apache Web Server vs IIS vs NGINX Plus comparison

Apache and Microsoft are both solutions in the Application Infrastructure category. Apache is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.8, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. Apache holds a 10.5% mindshare in AIS, compared to Microsoft’s 12.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Apache users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Apache Web Server

Read 23 Apache Web Server reviews

1,904 Views
1,610 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IIS

Read 56 IIS reviews

2,756 Views
2,058 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

NGINX Plus

Read 31 NGINX Plus reviews

2,093 Views
1,787 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Apache Web Server

IIS

NGINX Plus

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Apache Web Server, IIS, and NGINX Plus based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, F5, Apache and others in Application Infrastructure.

To learn more, read our detailed Application Infrastructure Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

March 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Apache Web Server is 10.5%, up from 10.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IIS is 12.5%, down from 13.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX Plus is 11.4%, down from 11.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

Sakthivel Veeramuthu

Technology Lead at Infosys

Easy to optimize for high performance and handle heavy traffic

Most of the features I liked were related to the performance during peak hours. Because I needed to optimize the Apache web server to run it as a high performer during my customers' usage, then I needed to reduce my Apache web server resource usage for that. So that part of the thing is what I was more interested in doing. So, I mainly liked the performance and security.

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DanielWildermuth

Testtool expert at Helvetia Versicherungen

Provides integration with Eggplant but problems with stability

We use Windows Server only for Eggplant Manager. Otherwise, I'm not using it At the moment, we have big problems with stability, and I'm not very happy at the moment. So, the stability could be improved. I have been using it for a few years. The initial setup is complex. We have an…

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Ritesh-Bakhru

Major Account Manager at Check Point Software

Quick installation and very easy to manage while doing orchestration or automation

NGINX cannot be a replacement for your traditional load balancer with what we use in the network today. However, with applications going toward microservices, NGINX is definitely a way forward. F5 has many traditional load balancing features, so they still need to bring some of those features to NGINX. NGINX is a very basic load balancer and cannot do as many customizations as F5. I think F5 is trying to implement those features in NGINX so they can improve the balancing on NGINX, but I think that will take some time. With the traditional F5 set up, the same OS can do load balancing, firewalls, and even policy enforcement. If we are able to bring some of those capabilities to NGINX, I think it would become a versatile solution and usage would definitely increase.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution's most valuable feature is reporting."

"It's reliable, configurable and generally secure."

"Apache Web Server is free of cost."

"It is scalable."

"The product's initial setup phase is straightforward."

"The best thing about Apache is that it is open-source, so implementing my platform on-premises is less expansive than other solutions."

"Its community is its most valuable feature. Solving problems is easier on Apache because so many people know this product."

"Apache has proven to be incredibly reliable, and everything has operated smoothly without encountering any issues."

More Apache Web Server pros

"The initial setup is simple."

"IIS is stable."

"The most valuable feature of IIS is that it's free, and it works."

"The product is stable."

"The product is scalable."

"It has an intuitive user interface and provides a lot of options for building reports."

"The solution is easy to use and connects with Microsoft."

"Microsoft's technical support has always been very good."

More IIS pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is simple to configure."

"The best solution, by far, for web traffic control for things in production and just around the house."

"Supports IMAP, POP and SMTP protocols for the reverse proxy."

"When I worked in a security research center, we tested NGINX to support DoS and DDoS attacks, and its results were great."

"It performs very well. That's one of the primary reasons we use NGINX."

"The product is lightweight and fast."

"Its versatility and capabilities make it invaluable for implementing patches and fixes when necessary."

"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."

More NGINX Plus pros

Cons

"Things change very fast. We're always on the lookout for better approaches and tools. If the solution falls behind, we may have to switch."

"There is a security-related problem that depends on the web server's configuration."

"The interface has room for improvement."

"Adding a reverse proxy to Apache Web Server would be a significant improvement."

"I want the user interface to be more user-friendly."

"It would be great if technical support for Apache were available in Iran. It is a very important need."

"The product's initial setup process could be easier for users."

"Its stability could be better."

More Apache Web Server cons

"Finding different settings can be difficult if you don't know where to look."

"The solution's scalability needs improvement."

"The areas of this solution that need improvement are monitoring, debugging, and troubleshooting."

"The documentation is not very detailed. They need to improve it and add to it. They should ensure there are lots of visuals to help users better understand the solution."

"Scalability issues and security concerns need attention from Microsoft."

"It would be beneficial if you could automate security certificate monitoring with IIS."

"The security must be improved."

"This solution needs to be easier for cases where you want to have an IIS cluster."

More IIS cons

"Improvement needed in NGINX Plus could focus on optimizing memory usage for users."

"Make modules easier to enable or disable. The beauty and ugly side of the NGINX modules is you have to know how to compile the module. For beginners or non-very technical aspirant(s) going for NGINX, they have to learn how to compile the modules."

"I would like to see the Grafana integration in NGINX which is already present in HAProxy. Grafana integration will help the solution visualize all the data analytics on the dashboard which is currently not present."

"The solution must improve its performance."

"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."

"The solution needs to be easier to setup and deploy."

"If NGINX brings some features for health check in the open source version, it would be better. "

More NGINX Plus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an open-source solution."

"There is no licensing cost for the product."

"The apache software is free, open-source."

"It is a free-of-cost solution."

"It is licensed with your Windows installation which makes it relatively cheap if you already have a Windows Server sitting around."

"IIS's pricing is not expensive."

"IIS is expensive."

"The licensing cost is dependent on the usage."

"The tool's pricing is on a yearly basis."

"IIS comes along with an OS license from Microsoft. Others can opt for a perpetual-based licensing model to be able to use the system."

"The price is good."

"The price of the cloud system is a bit high."

More IIS pricing and cost advice

"Nginx is free. I don't have experience with the Plus version."

"There's an open-source version of NGINX that is free."

"It's an open source solution, so it's free."

"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 use the solution's community edition which is free of cost."

"You pay for each feature that you want."

More NGINX Plus pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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Comparison Review

it_user240036

Senior IT Architect at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees

Apr 10, 2016

Apache vs. Nginx

Originally posted https://zitseng.com/archives/10435 Apache or Nginx. This is a question that many website administrators have considered. It’s a question that I’ve also considered several times, and again just the past week. Apache is the most popular web server on the Internet. Nginx, on the…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

16%

University

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

17%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Apache Web Server?

The product's initial setup phase is straightforward.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Web Server?

Apache Web Server is a free product, with no associated setup costs or licensing fees.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Apache Web Server?

There is no need for substantial improvements as we have a dedicated team managing the server, ensuring everything ru...

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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 architectur...

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What do you like most about IIS?

The product is flexible.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IIS?

If you have a Windows license, there is no additional cost for IIS. However, you may need to pay for SSL publishing a...

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What do you like most about NGINX Plus?

It performs very well. That's one of the primary reasons we use NGINX.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NGINX Plus?

My use case involves using the free and open-source version of NGINX, making it cost-effective as I haven't incurred ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with NGINX Plus?

One area of improvement could be that NGINX could provide a means to generate self-signed SSL certificates. This woul...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft .NET Framework vs Apache Web Server

Compared 9% of the time

Zend PHP Engine vs Apache Web Server

Compared 7% of the time

IBM WebSphere Application Server vs Apache Web Server

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle SOA Suite vs Apache Web Server

Compared 5% of the time

JBoss Enterprise Application Platform vs Apache Web Server

Compared 3% of the time

More Apache Web Server Competitors

Oracle WebLogic Server vs IIS

Compared 16% of the time

Tomcat vs IIS

Compared 14% of the time

JBoss vs IIS

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft .NET Framework vs IIS

Compared 5% of the time

IBM WebSphere Application Server vs IIS

Compared 4% of the time

More IIS Competitors

HAProxy vs NGINX Plus

Compared 16% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs NGINX Plus

Compared 11% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs NGINX Plus

Compared 10% of the time

NetScaler vs NGINX Plus

Compared 10% of the time

Radware Alteon vs NGINX Plus

Compared 4% of the time

More NGINX Plus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Apache Web Server

April 2025

Download Apache Web Server product report

Buyer's Guide

IIS

April 2025

Download IIS product report

Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus

April 2025

Download NGINX Plus product report

Also Known As

Apache HTTP Server

Windows Server IIS

NGINX

Overview

The Apache HTTP Server Project was founded in 1995 by a group of webmasters, known as The Apache Group, with the aim of developing robust, richly-featured, freely-available and commercial-standard Web (HTTP) server source code. The result was Apache Web Server or Apache HTTP Server, which is an open-source public-domain web server.

This collaborative project has been enhanced ever since with contributions from the core development team and other volunteers situated all over the globe. Also, hundreds of users of this open-source web server have contributed code, ideas, and documentation. The project falls under The Apache Software Foundation, which manages many open-source projects.

Apache

Internet Information Services (IIS) provides a secure, easy-to-manage, modular and extensible platform for reliably hosting websites, services and applications. With IIS, you get choice and control without giving up reliability or security.

Microsoft

NGINX Plus is a versatile solution that offers load balancing, caching, proxying, and API deployment capabilities. It can be deployed on private or public clouds and is ideal for building CDN solutions. The solution can also be used to secure web applications and replace web services like Apache.

NGINX has helped organizations improve functioning, reduce downtimes, and offer a DevOps-friendly solution. Its community support and documentation are highly regarded, and its configuration is more straightforward, making it a recommended choice over HAProxy.

Sample Customers

Cisco, Intuit, General Electric, Adobe, VMware, PayPal, HP, EMC, eBay, Apple, SAP, Qualcomm, SanDisk, Allstate, FedEx

Erste Bank Group, NJVC, Samsung Electronics, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Tata Steel Europe, Urban Software Institute

Locaweb, AppNexus, Wix, Reliam, Montana Interactive, MuleSoft, Warpwire, Discovery Education, InkaBinka, WordPress.com, Gogo, GOV.UK, NASA

Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

March 2025

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