Apache Web Server vs IIS comparison

Apache and Microsoft are both solutions in the Application Infrastructure category. Apache is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.5, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.5. Apache holds a 10.5% mindshare in AIS, compared to Microsoft’s 9.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Apache users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Apache Web Server

Read 24 Apache Web Server reviews

1,705 Views
1,688 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IIS

Read 61 IIS reviews

3,651 Views
2,373 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Apache Web Server

IIS

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

IIS and Apache Web Server compete in the web server category. Apache seems to have the upper hand due to its open-source nature and cross-platform compatibility.

Features: IIS integrates seamlessly with Windows and offers robust security with application pools and process isolation. It is easy to use for Microsoft ecosystem users and provides performance benefits when hosting applications. Apache, known for stability and flexibility, is the most widely used web server worldwide. It is open-source, supports multiple operating systems, and efficiently handles extensive client requests.

Room for Improvement: IIS faces compatibility issues outside Microsoft environments and can be challenging to scale. Troubleshooting is not intuitive for unfamiliar users. Apache requires detailed command-line configuration, which can be daunting for less experienced users. It lacks support for the .NET framework and structured customer support outside certain areas.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IIS is often deployed on-premises or in hybrid cloud setups, benefitting from Microsoft's support ecosystem, although initial support levels may vary. Apache's deployment is versatile but often relies on community support due to its open-source nature, making official support less straightforward.

Pricing and ROI: IIS incurs costs from Windows Server licenses, making it economically viable for organizations already using Microsoft products, with users reporting strong ROI from integration benefits. Apache, being free, offers significant cost savings, though ROI varies greatly depending on implementation and hardware expenses.

To learn more, read our detailed Apache Web Server vs. IIS Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Apache Web Server vs. IIS

March 2026

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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

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

IIS

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Server (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Apache Web Server is 10.5%, up from 10.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IIS is 9.9%, down from 12.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
IIS	9.9%
Apache Web Server	10.5%
Other	79.6%

Application Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

Dimitrios Zigkos

Enterprise Architect at Smals vzw

Faced limitations with integration and long-term adaptability but benefited from a lightweight architecture for standalone applications

I find valuable and beneficial the independence that comes with Apache Web Server. You can build a small project using a simple application server without bothering too much about how to manage it. The compatibility with multiple operating systems has helped my operations since most of the time we use Linux. Some systems rely on Windows, but they are few; in the past, Windows was the dominant operating system for mainstream PCs and infrastructure, but not for business. All the companies I worked for had 90% Linux and maybe up to 10% Windows. The initial setup of Apache Web Server was straightforward and okay.

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Krishnakumar Natarajan

Systems Engineer at Atos

Designs and manages multiple websites while ensuring data backup and disaster recovery

I have experience with AWS, and I am most familiar with the server environment, as we just use the server environment and then use Microsoft products on an AWS environment. I have experience with Windows Server IIS, which I ran on my own on-premise data center. The website was developed and then hosted, and through IIS, we managed the servers. The manageability within the IIS environment is not very difficult. For server management, you need to ensure data backup, data restore, and you have a DR configured to keep the database intact. It was done on-premises, so I had no problem doing that. If you have to go to the cloud, then you should have the storage connected to the IIS server and also have a DR set up for that. I didn't use Microsoft Azure tools, but since it is a Microsoft product, Azure has all the portability, so you don't have to worry about compatibility on the cloud. On a scale of 1-10, I would rate this solution a 10.

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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 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."

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

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

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

"The solution offers good security."

"The open-source nature is one of its most significant advantages."

"Apache Web Server is free of cost."

"It is more secure to use Apache and you will have fewer problems than other web services."

More Apache Web Server pros

"The solution integrates well with most Microsoft products."

"The best features of IIS are that you can design your own website and manage it yourself, creating as many websites as you want."

"The most valuable feature of IIS is the database it provides."

"The solution has been reliable."

"IIS is Internet Information Services, which is application infrastructure, and the main benefits include security control where you can control different access levels and integrate with other services to manage application security."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."

"The most valuable feature of IIS is it does not consume a lot of resources. It does not consume a lot of resources, such as memory."

"The product is flexible."

More IIS pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

"By optimizing the infrastructure to allow the webserver to directly handle queries from memory—particularly by prioritizing the storage of queries in memory and processing them through the web server interface—I could potentially cut down the required instances from five hundred to two hundred."

"The GUI for the less experienced users needs some improvement. For some companies, it is hard to configure it if they have not had any experience."

"The major issue occurs with ports. So, I would like to see easier port management."

"The interface has room for improvement."

"Lacks integration with some cloud solutions."

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

More Apache Web Server cons

"It should be more user-friendly because unless you know how IIS works as a Microsoft product, a system admin cannot just manage it."

"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."

"The only disadvantage I see is that the documentation is a bit difficult to find."

"If Microsoft IIS could work well with AppOptics or things like PHP, Python, and other custom languages that run on the webserver, it would be ideal. I think there are cases where people need to use Apache instead of IIS when IIS doesn't work well with other web languages."

"The only issue I've encountered is with certificates not working fine sometimes. It's influenced by the server's service performance."

"The initial setup could be made easier."

"Sometimes, we encounter difficult issues, and getting support from Microsoft to resolve those issues is not easy."

"Microsoft products can only work within the Windows environment, which limits their versatility."

More IIS 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."

"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."

"There is a license needed for the solution."

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

"IIS's pricing is reasonable."

"IIS is expensive."

"I didn't need to get an additional license for the solution since it was included in my server."

"There is no license required for the product as it is role-based. Whenever you go for a Windows platform server, the role has to be installed directly from the server manager. There is no additional cost that has to be paid for that. It is free to use."

"The product's price is not high."

More IIS pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Outsourcing Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	11

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	29
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	22

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?

There are no fees associated with the usage of Apache Web Server in my projects. If you want to have support, then there is some cost, but today I do not know how many companies pay for that servic...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Apache Web Server?

I would like to see improvements in the functionality and core of Apache Web Server, focusing on building an infrastructure that can be resilient and robust enough to handle resource shortages, and...

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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 architecture can handle the most demanding tasks. From media streaming to web applications,...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IIS?

For the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for IIS, as a Microsoft product, I didn't think much about separately purchasing an IIS product as it is part of Microsoft Windows. We bought a developmen...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IIS?

I see that IIS has maintained the same interface for a long time, so they could potentially use more automation or integrate Copilot into it to make it easier to use. I have not accessed or checked...

See all answers

Comparisons

NGINX Plus vs Apache Web Server

Compared 19% of the time

Magic xpa Application Platform vs Apache Web Server

Compared 6% of the time

Windows Server AppFabric vs Apache Web Server

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft .NET Framework vs Apache Web Server

Compared 5% of the time

InterSystems Ensemble vs Apache Web Server

Compared 5% of the time

More Apache Web Server Competitors

NGINX Plus vs IIS

Compared 18% of the time

Tomcat vs IIS

Compared 7% of the time

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) vs IIS

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle WebLogic Server vs IIS

Compared 5% of the time

Oracle Application Server vs IIS

Compared 5% of the time

More IIS Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Apache Web Server

March 2026

Download Apache Web Server product report

Buyer's Guide

IIS

March 2026

Download IIS product report

Also Known As

Apache HTTP Server

Windows Server IIS

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

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

Buyer's Guide

Apache Web Server vs. IIS

March 2026

Free Report: Apache Web Server vs. IIS

Find out what your peers are saying about Apache Web Server vs. IIS and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

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