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NGINX Plus vs Zend PHP Engine comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

NGINX Plus
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (5th)
Zend PHP Engine
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of NGINX Plus is 11.5%, down from 12.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zend PHP Engine is 1.4%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

Ritesh-Bakhru - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
SatyendraGupta - PeerSpot reviewer
The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature
The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature.  A general scripting language should be further developed and should be embedded into it. I have been Zend PHP Engine for nine years.  Multiple people are using the solution.  Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"Its versatility and capabilities make it invaluable for implementing patches and fixes when necessary."
"The web proxy and the database proxy are excellent."
"I think installation only took a couple of minutes — no more than 10 minutes."
"Using NGINX Plus for web traffic distribution is fantastic. It offers performance similar to physical load balancers but with added flexibility."
"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 resilient."
"-"
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the speed at which it compiles and sends the dynamic cache."
"Zend PHP Engine is more secure than any other framework, and I usually prefer Zend PHP Engine for big applications."
"The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature."
"Offers a complete environment to develop PHP applications. It is valuable because it allows you to have a complete stack (PHP, MySQL, Zend Server) enabling the building of a development environment, and to deploy to the production system."
"It offers good support for various types of classes, along with many open source libraries that we can readily utilize in our application development process. This gives us a lot of options when it comes to custom development solutions, without having to worry about licensing or other programming-related issues."
"Zend Engine gives the flexibility to use external modules to easily expand the functionalities you need for your web project."
"​Zend Engine is the core of PHP. It makes PHP fast, efficient, and basically, the language of choice for web applications."
"Zend PHP Engine is a good tool for developing and collecting data, offering strong performance."
 

Cons

"NGINX Plus is moderately priced, but it could give better value for money."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing model."
"The solution's GUI is an area with certain shortcomings that need improvement."
"The solution must improve its performance."
"Lack of a feature to print data on the terminal for verification of network traffic during debugging and testing."
"The user interface could be improved."
"The solution needs to be easier to setup and deploy."
"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."
"Although it offers a complete environment to develop and deploy PHP applications, it has some limitations. For example, when the volume of data increased exponentially, I had problems scaling the system."
"The process of installing and configuring the product is a bit complex and could be improved."
"The biggest problem with PHP is you have to write lot of conditions or have to use a framework."
"Zend PHP Engine needs to improve the loading time of its libraries and make it faster."
"The solution can be quicker."
"A general scripting language should be further developed and should be embedded into it."
"Integrating AI tools would make PHP more competitive, as other tools already have AI features."
"SQL queries have always been an issue with PHP, especially if you use large tables, which require caution from the side of the developer.​"
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"​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. ​"
"The solution is free, but you can spend a lot of money with a complex solution."
"​NGINX is a free tool in Brazil. There are some companies which do support it.​"
"The cost is reasonable."
"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.​"
"HAProxy is cheaper than NGINX."
"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."
"Its pricing depends on the number of users."
"The solution is open source and you just pay for the server cost."
"Zend PHP Engine is not an expensive solution."
"The Zend PHP engine is open source technology, so there's no need for us to worry about licensing or other costs."
"No problem with pricing and licensing, as tools are open source. You have to consider training cost, mindset setup cost, as part of the TCO."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Construction Company
11%
 

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,...
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.
What do you like most about Zend PHP Engine?
The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature.
What needs improvement with Zend PHP Engine?
A general scripting language should be further developed and should be embedded into it.
 

Also Known As

NGINX
PHP Engine
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Locaweb, AppNexus, Wix, Reliam, Montana Interactive, MuleSoft, Warpwire, Discovery Education, InkaBinka, WordPress.com, Gogo, GOV.UK, NASA
Cisco
Find out what your peers are saying about NGINX Plus vs. Zend PHP Engine and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.