Apache Web Server vs IIS vs NGINX Plus comparison

Apache and Microsoft are both solutions in the Application Infrastructure category. Apache is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.6, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6. Apache holds a 11.4% mindshare in AIS, compared to Microsoft’s 10.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Apache users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Apache Web Server

Read 23 Apache Web Server reviews

1,560 Views
1,560 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IIS

Read 58 IIS reviews

3,167 Views
2,059 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

NGINX Plus

Read 31 NGINX Plus reviews

4,266 Views
1,536 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Apache Web Server

IIS

NGINX Plus

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Apache Web Server, IIS, and NGINX Plus based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, IBM, F5 and others in Application Infrastructure.

To learn more, read our detailed Application Infrastructure Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

August 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 866,561 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Apache Web Server is 11.4%, up from 10.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IIS is 10.5%, down from 13.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX Plus is 9.7%, down from 11.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Infrastructure Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IIS	10.5%
NGINX Plus	9.7%
Apache Web Server	11.4%
Other	68.4%

Application Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

Sakthivel Veeramuthu

Technology Lead at Infosys

Easy to optimize for high performance and handle heavy traffic

Most of the features I liked were related to the performance during peak hours. Because I needed to optimize the Apache web server to run it as a high performer during my customers' usage, then I needed to reduce my Apache web server resource usage for that. So that part of the thing is what I was more interested in doing. So, I mainly liked the performance and security.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

Michael Olayemi

Senior Software Engineer at Checkit

Enables public access and secure configurations through reverse proxy

The primary valuable feature of NGINX for me is its ability to provide a reverse proxy. I have found that this feature supports our local server, and I am able to connect through our DNS system, making it accessible publicly. Additionally, the integration with SSL certificates and the configuration capabilities make it a valuable solution for my use case. Without NGINX, users would not be able to access our application, which means there is positive ROI from using NGINX as it is crucial for the functioning of my organization.

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

"It is scalable."

"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."

"Apache Web Server is free of cost."

"The product is very cheap and stable."

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

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

"Its community is its most valuable feature. Solving problems is easier on Apache because so many people know this product."

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

"The solution is easy to use, easy to maintain and isn't too technical."

"The interface, simplicity, and ease of management are all good features that make this user-friendly."

"IIS has a very simple and user-friendly interface, which helps a lot in effective and efficient management."

"The initial setup of IIS is easy. The process takes only five minutes."

"When you are working with Microsoft solutions, you will see that the integration with the operating system, and implementing some security features, are easier in IIS than when using another solution."

"The solution is very simple to use and easy to deploy."

"All the features of Microsoft IIS are valuable."

More IIS pros

"The load balancing module, which is equivalent to LTM, is the focus of the PSE. So far, the features of both are identical. I believe NGINX has more features for securing these services, but in terms of load balancing, both are massive solutions."

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

"Valuable features include authentication, caching, reverse proxy routing, and load balancing."

"Using NGINX Plus for web traffic distribution is fantastic. It offers performance similar to physical load balancers but with added flexibility."

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

"It performs very well. That's one of the primary reasons we use NGINX."

"I find the solution’s community support and documentation most valuable. Compared to HAProxy, have found a lot of documentation and community support on Quora. If you would be asking me as a developer whether to choose this product, I would recommend this since it has good community support, documentation, and signature updates. The configuration of HAProxy is also very tedious. However, NGINX’s configuration is very simple."

"The robust software architecture allows for it to be scalable and very stable."

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."

"There isn't a dedicated customer support available"

"Its stability could be better."

"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."

"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."

More Apache Web Server cons

"The solution's stability needs improvement."

"The solution must improve the integration between its databases."

"Presently, some developers do not have technical knowledge of managing IIS, so that needs to be improved in the next release."

"Scalability issues and security concerns need attention from Microsoft."

"IIS could improve the error logging. There are times we are not able to see the errors. More details would be helpful. Additionally, the configuring of the IIS should be allowed through coding instead of the classic view."

"In the next release, I would like to see better integration between the cloud environment and the on-premises environment."

"The solution's black box is not fast."

"IIS needs to improve its security. Its support needs to be faster and clear. The tool's licensing could be cheaper as well."

More IIS cons

"There is room for improvement in the pricing model."

"The center management system could be improved."

"The scalability could be improved."

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

"Only improvement needed that I would point to is scalability. With it, I mean clusterized organisation on a low level. At the moment, the best alternative is RHEL HA."

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

"The scaling should be built into the software rather than configured from an outside source."

"The solution's GUI is an area with certain shortcomings that need improvement."

More NGINX Plus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is no licensing cost for the product."

"The apache software is free, open-source."

"It is an open-source solution."

"It is a free-of-cost solution."

"I was using the trial version of IIS inside my virtual machines."

"The yearly licensing cost is very high. The solution is very expensive."

"IIS comes along with an OS license from Microsoft. Others can opt for a perpetual-based licensing model to be able to use the system."

"I give the price of the solution a five out of ten."

"There is no license needed to use the solution."

"There is an annual license to use this solution and the price could be better."

"The product's price is not high."

"Users can get a subscription-based license or a perpetual license for IIS."

More IIS pricing and cost advice

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

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

"You pay for each feature that you want."

"HAProxy is cheaper than NGINX."

"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."

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

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

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

More NGINX Plus pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Infrastructure solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

866,561 professionals have used our research since 2012.

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

University

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Government

University

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	10

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	28
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	20

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	10

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.

See all answers

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 ru...

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 architectur...

See all answers

What do you like most about IIS?

The product is flexible.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IIS?

If you have a Windows license, there is no additional cost for IIS. However, you may need to pay for SSL publishing a...

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 ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with NGINX Plus?

One area of improvement could be that NGINX could provide a means to generate self-signed SSL certificates. This woul...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft .NET Framework vs Apache Web Server

Compared 8% of the time

Magic xpa Application Platform vs Apache Web Server

Compared 5% of the time

IBM WebSphere Application Server vs Apache Web Server

Compared 5% of the time

InterSystems Ensemble vs Apache Web Server

Compared 4% of the time

Zend PHP Engine vs Apache Web Server

Compared 4% of the time

More Apache Web Server Competitors

Tomcat vs IIS

Compared 11% of the time

Oracle WebLogic Server vs IIS

Compared 10% of the time

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) vs IIS

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft .NET Framework vs IIS

Compared 5% of the time

IBM WebSphere Application Server vs IIS

Compared 4% of the time

More IIS Competitors

HAProxy vs NGINX Plus

Compared 11% of the time

NetScaler vs NGINX Plus

Compared 11% of the time

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

Compared 10% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs NGINX Plus

Compared 9% of the time

VMWare Avi Load Balancer vs NGINX Plus

Compared 6% of the time

More NGINX Plus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Apache Web Server

August 2025

Download Apache Web Server product report

Buyer's Guide

IIS

August 2025

Download IIS product report

Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus

August 2025

Download NGINX Plus product report

Also Known As

Apache HTTP Server

Windows Server IIS

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

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

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

Erste Bank Group, NJVC, Samsung Electronics, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Tata Steel Europe, Urban Software Institute

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

Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

August 2025

Download Free Report

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, IBM, F5 and others in Application Infrastructure. Updated: August 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

866,561 professionals have used our research since 2012.