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NGINX Plus vs Zend PHP Engine comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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 Plus
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (10th)
Zend PHP Engine
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of NGINX Plus is 8.0%, down from 10.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zend PHP Engine is 2.5%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NGINX Plus8.0%
Zend PHP Engine2.5%
Other89.5%
Application Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

Nadeem-Inamdar - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
MW
CEO at VonatelNetworks
Effective network data analysis with customization capabilities and an open-source model
We use Zend PHP Engine in a government project to develop a tool for network monitoring analysis. We utilize the tool to collect all the network data for a platform PHP allows us to personalize a solution if the customer desires. This flexibility is beneficial. Zend PHP Engine is a good tool for…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 most valuable feature of the solution is that it is simple to configure."
"Using NGINX Plus for web traffic distribution is fantastic. It offers performance similar to physical load balancers but with added flexibility."
"It's lightweight software that can handle heavy loads efficiently."
"The primary valuable feature of NGINX for me is its ability to provide a reverse proxy."
"This solution has everything."
"I think installation only took a couple of minutes — no more than 10 minutes."
"The overall product rating is ten out of ten."
"Zend PHP Engine is a good tool for developing and collecting data, offering strong performance."
"The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature."
"Faster web app implementation, when PHP dev is required by customers."
"​Zend Engine is the core of PHP. It makes PHP fast, efficient, and basically, the language of choice for web applications."
"Zend Engine gives the flexibility to use external modules to easily expand the functionalities you need for your web project."
"It makes web design easy and quick and gives well finished websites."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the speed at which it compiles and sends the dynamic cache."
"No issues with stability encountered."
 

Cons

"I would like it to have a more user-friendly graphical interface."
"Initially, I experienced hiccups whenever I installed the application. As with any application, there were initial issues, however, after receiving support, everything was rectified."
"Our most challenging part was to run an older PHP website reverse-proxied through NGINX. That was not fun."
"The scalability could be improved."
"The solution needs to be easier to setup and deploy."
"If NGINX brings some features for health check in the open source version, it would be better. ​"
"The center management system could be improved."
"Improvement needed in NGINX Plus could focus on optimizing memory usage for users."
"Integration of MVC with ORM tools for PHP is okay, but lacking a short list of decent ORM tools for PHP to choose from; there is ample room for improvement in both areas."
"The biggest problem with PHP is you have to write lot of conditions or have to use a framework."
"The process of installing and configuring the product is a bit complex and could be improved."
"A general scripting language should be further developed and should be embedded into it."
"The solution can be quicker."
"The main area that Zend needs to improve is to support asynchronous programming tasks, which is facilitated in PHP 7, but not at the same degree as HHVM.​​"
"Its object oriented programming language needs improvement."
"Zend PHP Engine needs to improve the loading time of its libraries and make it faster."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"HAProxy is cheaper than NGINX."
"I am not so happy with their pricing policy, but this is not the worse thing in my life. I can tolerate it."
"There's an open-source version of NGINX that is free."
"I use the solution's community edition which is free of cost."
"Nginx is free. I don't have experience with the Plus version."
"You pay for each feature that you want."
"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."
"It's an open source solution, so it's free."
"Its pricing depends on the number of users."
"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."
"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."
"The solution is open source and you just pay for the server cost."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Construction Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Large Enterprise2
 

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 needs improvement with NGINX Plus?
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....
What needs improvement with Zend PHP Engine?
Integrating AI tools would make PHP more competitive, as other tools already have AI features.
What is your primary use case for Zend PHP Engine?
We use Zend PHP Engine in a government project to develop a tool for network monitoring analysis. We utilize the tool to collect all the network data for a platform.
 

Also Known As

NGINX, F5 NGINX Plus
PHP Engine
 

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: August 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.