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 10.5% mindshare in AIS, compared to F5’s 11.4% 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 23 Apache Web Server reviews

1,904 Views
1,610 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NGINX Plus

Read 31 NGINX Plus reviews

2,093 Views
1,787 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Apache Web Server

NGINX Plus

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

Apache Web Server and NGINX Plus compete in the web server software solutions category. Apache has an edge in community support and ease of customization, whereas NGINX Plus leads with its performance-focused design and advanced features for enterprises.

Features: Apache Web Server offers stability through its open-source support, compatibility with multiple operating systems, and extensive customizability. NGINX Plus provides efficient handling of client requests, advanced load balancing, and robust application delivery features.

Room for Improvement: Apache could improve in direct support and streamlining its user interface. Enhancing deployment processes to be more user-friendly would be beneficial. NGINX Plus requires simpler configuration methodologies and a better balance of open-source features against its pricing.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Apache Web Server excels in documentation and community support, although corporate support is lacking. NGINX Plus offers extensive deployment options with strong vendor support and community engagement, facilitating better customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Apache Web Server is free, offering substantial savings and rapid ROI. NGINX Plus, despite its licensing costs, provides value through premium features suitable for businesses with specific needs in advanced load balancing and security.

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

Buyer's Guide

Apache Web Server vs. NGINX Plus

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:

Categories and Ranking

Apache Web Server

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

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) (6th)

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 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

Saurav Kumar

Senior security architecture at National Payment Corporation Of India

Offers security features that are reliable

When it comes to Apache Web Server, I don't have any suggestions for improvement because we use it in the UAT environment. For production, my company mainly uses NGINX. There is no direct package provided by the product if I want to use WAF. In NGINX, NGINX Plus has the signature update capability, but in Apache, the same feature is not available, making it an area where improvements are required. If WAF can be introduced in Apache Web Server, it would be a good improvement so that its users can implement either the WAF module or ModSecurity, as they choose. 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. Apache Web Server should provide users with the same capabilities offered under NGINX Management Suite with the help of a simple GUI so that our company doesn't have to do anything on the terminal while directly getting to use the user interface, which can help us with the configuration part.

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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 is free of cost."

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

"The most significant advantage is the ability to swiftly enable HTTPS services when my DNS is configured correctly."

"It is scalable."

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

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

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

"It's very stable, and it hosts one of the biggest of many biggest web applications in the world."

More Apache Web Server pros

"The primary valuable feature of NGINX for me is its ability to provide a reverse proxy."

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

"The web proxy and the database proxy are excellent."

"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."

"The flexibility of its modules allow it to be scalable."

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

"NGINX works much better than HAProxy in our current hardware and architecture for HTTP/HTTPS load balancing. "

More NGINX Plus pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

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

"There isn't a dedicated customer support available"

"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."

"Its stability could be better."

"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."

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

More Apache Web Server cons

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

"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."

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

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

"I would like it to have a more user-friendly graphical interface."

"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."

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

"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."

"I am not so happy with their pricing policy, but this is not the worse thing in my life. I can tolerate it."

"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."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

16%

Computer Software Company

16%

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.

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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 runs smoothly.

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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 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 42% of the time

Microsoft .NET Framework vs Apache Web Server

Compared 8% 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

More Apache Web Server Competitors

IIS vs NGINX Plus

Compared 18% of the time

HAProxy vs NGINX Plus

Compared 16% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs NGINX Plus

Compared 11% 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

March 2025

Download Apache Web Server product report

Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus

March 2025

Download NGINX Plus product report

Also Known As

Apache HTTP Server

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

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

March 2025

Free Report: Apache Web Server vs. NGINX Plus

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