To ensure a good user experience of your website, you need to make sure your servers are fast. To achieve this, there are many programs available. The most popular are Nginx and Apache. In this article, you will find a detailed comparison of Nginx vs Apache, to help you choose the one that best suits your project!
Nginx server
it is a lightweight and high performance web server. It is open source, which makes customization easy. It is very popular and, along with Apache, they pretty much rule the entire web server market.
Nginx development started in 2002 when the need arose to increase the number of simulated requests per server.
On a technical level, an Nginx server uses an asynchronous thread architecture. This means that when a request is generated, it does not create a new process on the server’s processor, thus increasing server performance.
Also, it is good to note that Nginx is the fastest growing web host in recent years. There are even 375 million websites up and running thanks to it. It is available for all versions of Linux, including .
apache server
is a veteran web host. It was created in 1995 and to this day it is the most popular in the world. It’s also open source, so you can examine, improve, and adapt the source code to your needs. Like Ngnix, it is available for almost all Linux versions including Ubuntu 18.04 and CentOS 7.
The main goal of Apache is to provide a secure, stable, and flexible web server. For example, Apache manages multithreaded modules to maintain the same connection in different ways. Providing as main advantage the fact that administrators can apply criteria for each connection.
However, due to its consumption, it requires more resources.
Apache vs Nginx: is it worth comparing them?
The short answer is yes. While it is true that both perform their function very well, they have a couple of differences to highlight. Therefore, you must know in which areas each one is or is not suitable for your server.
1. Nginx vs Apache – Popularity
Popularity is not a technical field, but it does influence the level of community support the server can have. Nginx and Apache are very popular and, in this sense, one could almost say that they are tied.
However, Apache has more support from the open source community, which makes it ideal for educational and home projects.
Also, Apache is still the most popular web server in the world, although the difference with Nginx is not much.
2. Nginx vs Apache – Security
In this sense, both web servers have very good security policies. Security patches are frequently released by both development teams to prevent DDoS attacks.
In addition to this, they have quite active developments and have constant updates.
3. Apache vs Nginx – Performance
If you have a website, ideally the web server should be as fast as possible. Otherwise, the slowness could cause server crashes and worse, crashes to visitors.
In this sense, thanks to the thread management it has, Nginx responds better to client requests. Also, because it’s event-based, only the server responds with requests, so it doesn’t waste memory unnecessarily.
In addition to this, Nginx makes a more efficient consumption of computing resources. In other words, it consumes less RAM.
Another factor to consider is that Nginx handles multiple requests better. This is why, when many clients access your server at the same time, Nginx is superior to Apache.
4. Nginx vs Apache – Flexibility
Sysadmin has to deal with many different situations. In this sense, applications must be flexible enough to adapt to what is required.
Apache is a very flexible web server. It supports more than 60 different modules, further expanding its functionality. Also, Apache supports customizing connections via the tool, while Nginx does not.
So, we can say that Apache is much more flexible and customizable.
So what to wear? – Nginx vs. Apache
In the end, it all depends on what you need. Generally speaking, Apache is ideal if you have to do a lot of customization of connections. Also, it’s a good idea to use it if you need a lot of information. This is because Apache has more community support.
On the other hand, if your web server will receive a lot of traffic, you will probably need to use Nginx, as it behaves much better in this area.
Finally, it is possible to use both on the same server. This practice, although not as frequent as one might think, is directed at different websites. Some require more customization and use Apache, others, which are accessed by more clients, are served on Nginx.
The bottom line is that you need to weigh what is most important to you and make the choice based on this.
Deyi is a digital marketing enthusiast, with a background in web design, content creation, copywriting, and SEO. She is part of ‘s SEO & Localization team. In her free time, she likes to develop projects, read a book or watch a good movie.
Facebook Comments
Disqus