NGINX Controller vs NGINX Plus comparison

NGINX Controller and NGINX Plus are both solutions in the Application Infrastructure category. NGINX Controller is ranked #19 with an average rating of 7.0, while NGINX Plus is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.8. NGINX Controller holds a 0.9% mindshare in AIS, compared to NGINX Plus’s 8.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of NGINX Controller users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of NGINX Plus users who would recommend it.

NGINX Controller

Read 1 NGINX Controller review

198 Views
198 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NGINX Plus

Read 32 NGINX Plus reviews

4,092 Views
1,637 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

NGINX Controller

NGINX Plus

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between NGINX Controller and NGINX Plus based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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Application Infrastructure

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

NGINX Controller

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

19th

Average Rating

7.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NGINX Plus

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (9th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of NGINX Controller is 0.9%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX Plus is 8.9%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
NGINX Plus	8.9%
NGINX Controller	0.9%
Other	90.2%

Application Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

Satheesh Papisetty

Digital Services & Engagement Senior Manager at AXA

Load balancing and security strengthen operations while error handling needs improvement

We use NGINX Controller for load balancing purposes. Our use case involves integrating it with a three-tier architecture, where it serves as a critical component for application routing, handling index pages, and enhancing security The most valuable features of NGINX Controller include its…

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Nadeem-Inamdar

Senior Information Security Engineer at a tech company with 10,001+ employees

Advanced policies and web firewall have strengthened application protection and reduced attack traffic

There were some vulnerabilities in F5. They tried to fix it, but the fixes were not available at the time because they were zero days, so they attempted to fix it, but their support was not proper. Their support should be improved because sometimes features which we need for customization take time, and they are sometimes feasible and sometimes not feasible by the team, so their support and the engineering team should improve their product. I would like to see more features regarding customization which should be built into the application, and the tool optimization should be good, and the dashboard should be more crisp and clear.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"NGINX Controller is cheap compared to other solutions, and it offers significant cost and time savings."

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

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

"When you use NGINX, you have more options and power."

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

"Nginx is simple to configure, very stable in a highly utilized environment and very modular, allowing DevOps to create it's own modules for interactive use with Nginx."

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

"The most valuable features are the gateway and the ability to publish to sites."

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

More NGINX Plus pros

Cons

"The technical support from NGINX Controller is not good. They do not offer quick responses or 24/7 support, which is lacking when immediate assistance is needed."

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

"The scalability could be improved."

"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."

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

"The KPI should be more focused on load balancing and the latency in application calling from the end system."

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

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

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

More NGINX Plus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

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

"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. "

"You pay for each feature that you want."

"The cost is reasonable."

"HAProxy is cheaper than NGINX."

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

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

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

More NGINX Plus pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NGINX Controller?

NGINX Controller is cheap compared to other solutions, and it offers significant cost and time savings.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NGINX Controller?

The error handling in NGINX Controller requires improvement. The handling of misconfigurations is not good enough and needs enhancements.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for NGINX Controller?

We use NGINX Controller ( /products/nginx-controller-reviews ) for load balancing purposes. Our use case involves integrating it with a three-tier architecture, where it serves as a critical compon...

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?

Pricing is reasonable and that is fine.

See all answers

Comparisons

IIS vs NGINX Controller

Compared 63% of the time

More NGINX Controller Competitors

IIS vs NGINX Plus

Compared 13% of the time

Apache Web Server vs NGINX Plus

Compared 10% of the time

HAProxy vs NGINX Plus

Compared 9% of the time

NetScaler vs NGINX Plus

Compared 8% of the time

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

Compared 8% of the time

More NGINX Plus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

March 2026

Download NGINX Controller product report

Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus

March 2026

Download NGINX Plus product report

Also Known As

No data available

NGINX

Overview

Built to manage NGINX Plus instances at scale, NGINX Controller provides DevOps and developers a self-service, API driven control plane for their most critical application and security services. Manage and monitor load balancers, API gateways, and web application firewalls across any cloud, all from a single pane of glass.

The NGINX Controller API Management Module is an API management solution, combining NGINX Plus as an API gateway with new control‑plane functionality. NGINX Controller is designed to empower Infrastructure & Operations and DevOps teams to define, publish, secure, monitor, and analyze APIs, without compromising performance.

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

Information Not Available

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

Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

March 2026

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