Apache Web Server vs NGINX Plus comparison

Apache and F5 are both solutions in the Application Infrastructure category. Apache is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.8, while F5 is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3. Apache holds a 10.7% mindshare in AIS, compared to F5’s 11.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Apache users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of F5 users who would recommend it.

Apache Web Server

Read 22 Apache Web Server reviews

2,251 Views
1,929 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NGINX Plus

Read 31 NGINX Plus reviews

2,615 Views
2,139 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Apache Web Server

NGINX Plus

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

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

Find out in this report how the two Application Infrastructure solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Apache Web Server vs. NGINX Plus Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Apache Web Server vs. NGINX Plus

January 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:

Categories and Ranking

Apache Web Server

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NGINX Plus

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Apache Web Server is 10.7%, up from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX Plus is 11.8%, up 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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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

"Apache Web Server can be used as a proxy server"

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

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

"It is scalable."

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

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

"The control panel is very easy to navigate. It's similar to most hosting platforms, so it's user-friendly. Once you get used to it, managing your hosting becomes easy, too."

"Most of the features I liked were related to the performance during peak hours."

More Apache Web Server pros

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

"NGINX Plus also has NGINX App Protect. It's a separate module, which is inspired by the F5 apps."

"I think installation only took a couple of minutes — no more than 10 minutes."

"Application Gateway with application-level firewall tool and load distributor and balancer (also serves for A/B testing)."

"NGINX Plus' most valuable feature is the ingress controller."

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

"It's lightweight software that can handle heavy loads efficiently."

"Zero Downtime has always been a strength in recommending infrastructure web services. NGINX allows me to execute such infrastructure with less complications and the ability to switch from server to server easily."

More NGINX Plus pros

Cons

"For NGINX, I think it has NGINX Management Suite, which is GUI-based and allows you to manage your configuration via the user interface, but Apache fails to offer such capabilities to users."

"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."

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

"A monitoring interface would be great for this product. The monitoring dashboards for Apache's models are not included in the basic installation. You can install the basic monitoring model, then connect this model to another monitoring system."

"Its stability could be better."

"There isn't a dedicated customer support available"

"In future releases, I would like to see better server optimization."

More Apache Web Server cons

"It would be good if NGINX provided a graphical user interface."

"The scaling should be built into the software rather than configured from an outside source."

"The drawback is that you must obtain a license for everything."

"It would be great if there was even more automation to make it even easier to maintain."

"I would suggest adding GUI-based configuration panels to NGINX Plus to simplify setup and management tasks."

"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. "

"Initially, I experienced hiccups whenever I installed the application. As with any application, there were initial issues, however, after receiving support, everything was rectified."

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

More NGINX Plus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"It is an open-source solution."

"There is no licensing cost for the product."

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

"The solution is free, but you can spend a lot of money with a complex solution."

"Compared to other similar solutions on the market, I think it's over-priced."

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

"NGINX Plus is an open-source solution with limited additional features. When you try to get additional features in the solution, then you need to pay an extra amount to NGINX Plus."

"NGINX is a free tool in Brazil. There are some companies which do support it."

"HAProxy is cheaper than NGINX."

"You pay for each feature that you want."

More NGINX Plus pricing and cost advice

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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%

Government

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

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?

The price of the product is an area handled by the procurement team in my company.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Apache Web Server?

There isn't a dedicated customer support available for Apache Web Server.

See all answers

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,...

See all answers

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 any costs.

See all answers

Comparisons

IIS vs Apache Web Server

Compared 43% of the time

Zend PHP Engine vs Apache Web Server

Compared 7% of the time

IBM WebSphere Application Server vs Apache Web Server

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft .NET Framework vs Apache Web Server

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle SOA Suite vs Apache Web Server

Compared 5% of the time

More Apache Web Server Competitors

IIS vs NGINX Plus

Compared 19% of the time

HAProxy vs NGINX Plus

Compared 18% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs NGINX Plus

Compared 13% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) 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

January 2025

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Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus

January 2025

Download NGINX Plus product report

Also Known As

Apache HTTP Server

NGINX

Learn More

Apache

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.

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

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

Buyer's Guide

Apache Web Server vs. NGINX Plus

January 2025

Free Report: Apache Web Server vs. NGINX Plus

Find out what your peers are saying about Apache Web Server vs. NGINX Plus and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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