IIS vs NGINX Plus comparison

Microsoft and F5 are both solutions in the Application Infrastructure category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.1, while F5 is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3. Microsoft holds a 12.5% mindshare in AIS, compared to F5’s 11.5% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of F5 users who would recommend it.

IIS

Read 55 IIS reviews

4,009 Views
3,066 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

NGINX Plus

Read 28 NGINX Plus reviews

3,369 Views
2,739 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

IIS

NGINX Plus

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

IIS and NGINX Plus are competing web server solutions. Based on reviews, NGINX Plus holds an advantage due to its robust features and performance, while IIS receives commendation for .NET integration.

Features: IIS offers seamless Windows integration, effective support for ASP.NET applications, and is known for cost-effectiveness within Microsoft-based environments. NGINX Plus is recognized for high scalability, efficient concurrent connection management, and advanced load balancing capabilities, suitable for performance-intensive settings.

Room for Improvement: IIS faces challenges with limited non-Microsoft platform support, pushing calls for cross-platform enhancements. NGINX Plus users highlight a steep learning curve, pointing to a need for better documentation and easier configuration processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IIS is simple to deploy in Windows setups, needing minimal configuration, benefiting from Microsoft's extensive support. NGINX Plus requires a more intricate deployment but offers satisfactory scalability and reliable customer service resources.

Pricing and ROI: IIS is cost-effective for Microsoft-centric businesses, with favorable ROI via Windows licensing. NGINX Plus entails higher setup costs but justifies them with superior performance and features, providing substantial ROI for high traffic management needs.

To learn more, read our detailed IIS vs. NGINX Plus Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

IIS vs. NGINX Plus

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

IIS

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

1st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Server (4th)

NGINX Plus

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

2nd

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of IIS is 12.5%, down from 14.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX Plus is 11.5%, down from 12.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

VikramSingh6

Operations Executive at Quess

A simple and easy-to-use solution but not recommended for public apps

I would rate the overall solution a six out of ten. We have around five to six developers and engineers for the solution’s deployment and maintenance. You can use the solution if your website is not too big or complicated. However, if it is big and complicated, then you need to use Apache or Red Hat. This tool can be used for internal purposes. But if you plan to host a public app, then I wouldn’t recommend the tool.

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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 integrates well with most Microsoft products."

"It's good and offers good usability."

"The product is easy to use."

"Windows Server IIS is stable."

"It is a scalable solution."

"IIS's most valuable feature is user-friendliness."

"The solution is very simple to use and easy to deploy."

"The solution is highly reliable."

More IIS pros

"The robust software architecture allows for it to be scalable and very stable."

"This solution has everything."

"The load balancing module, which is equivalent to LTM, is the focus of the PSE. So far, the features of both are identical. I believe NGINX has more features for securing these services, but in terms of load balancing, both are massive solutions."

"With NGINX, I appreciate its ability to route traffic geographically."

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

"The product is resilient."

"The product is lightweight and fast."

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

More NGINX Plus pros

Cons

"I would like to see NLB features in IIS."

"We'd like future versions to be more stable."

"The solution's scalability needs improvement."

"The solution must improve the integration between its databases."

"We've never had any issues with the solution, but it's still nice to have overall improvements on it. It could be easier and faster to use, for example."

"Sometimes if you are using IIS in large-scale scenarios, meaning that if you are deploying an application within IIS service and you are expecting a large number of users to use this application, you can sometimes find some problems, meaning that the service can shut down by itself unexpectedly if you don't configure your IIS with the correct configuration that can handle this number of users."

"In the next release, I would like to see better integration between the cloud environment and the on-premises environment."

"IIS has some stability issues and needs restarting."

More IIS cons

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

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

"They should do in the open source version of what they did to Advanced HTTP, TCP, and UDP load balancing."

"NGINX Plus is moderately priced, but it could give better value for money."

"The center management system could be improved."

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

"The user interface could be improved."

"The scalability could be improved."

More NGINX Plus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is included with Windows."

"There is no license needed to use the solution."

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

"Users can get a subscription-based license or a perpetual license for IIS."

"IIS is expensive."

"The solution provides multiple licensing options."

"We pay a yearly licensing fee for the solution."

"I think it's part of the Windows Server, so you won't have any other costs to add in order to use the IIS service."

More IIS pricing and cost advice

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

"The price is the cost to contract support with a specialized company, usually during consulting hours."

"The list price of NGINX Plus is close to $5,500."

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

"HAProxy is cheaper than NGINX."

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

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

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

More NGINX Plus pricing and cost advice

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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Infrastructure solutions are best for your needs.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

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

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,...

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What do you like most about IIS?

The product is flexible.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IIS?

They offer a one-time payment model for the product license, and we pay annually for support. I rate the pricing an eight out of ten.

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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.

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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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NGINX Plus?

I would like the configuration process to be more simplified. Both Apache and NGINX involve some complex configuration steps. Easier configuration and troubleshooting would make it a perfect ten fo...

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Comparisons

Apache Web Server vs IIS

Compared 22% of the time

Oracle WebLogic Server vs IIS

Compared 15% of the time

Tomcat vs IIS

Compared 13% of the time

JBoss vs IIS

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft .NET Framework vs IIS

Compared 5% of the time

More IIS Competitors

HAProxy vs NGINX Plus

Compared 18% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs NGINX Plus

Compared 14% of the time

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

Compared 9% of the time

Apache Web Server vs NGINX Plus

Compared 8% of the time

NetScaler vs NGINX Plus

Compared 8% of the time

More NGINX Plus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IIS

November 2024

Download IIS product report

Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus

November 2024

Download NGINX Plus product report

Also Known As

Windows Server IIS

NGINX

Learn More

Microsoft

Overview

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.

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

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

IIS vs. NGINX Plus

October 2024

Free Report: IIS vs. NGINX Plus

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