Apache Web Server vs NGINX Plus comparison

Apache and F5 are both solutions in the Application Infrastructure category. Apache is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.5, while F5 is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.8. Apache holds a 11.0% mindshare in AIS, compared to F5’s 9.0% 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 24 Apache Web Server reviews

1,635 Views
1,619 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NGINX Plus

Read 32 NGINX Plus reviews

3,930 Views
1,533 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: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Apache Web Server vs. NGINX Plus

February 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

Apache Web Server

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

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) (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Apache Web Server is 11.0%, up from 10.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX Plus is 9.0%, down from 11.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Infrastructure Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
NGINX Plus	9.0%
Apache Web Server	11.0%
Other	80.0%

Application Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

Dimitrios Zigkos

Enterprise Architect at Smals vzw

Faced limitations with integration and long-term adaptability but benefited from a lightweight architecture for standalone applications

I find valuable and beneficial the independence that comes with Apache Web Server. You can build a small project using a simple application server without bothering too much about how to manage it. The compatibility with multiple operating systems has helped my operations since most of the time we use Linux. Some systems rely on Windows, but they are few; in the past, Windows was the dominant operating system for mainstream PCs and infrastructure, but not for business. All the companies I worked for had 90% Linux and maybe up to 10% Windows. The initial setup of Apache Web Server was straightforward and okay.

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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.

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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

"The solution offers good security."

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

"Most of the features I liked were related to the performance during peak hours."

"Apache Web Server is free of cost."

"The product is very cheap and stable."

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

"Apache Web Server effectively runs any web application, including Java-based applications, and includes Apache Tomcat server, which is crucial."

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

More Apache Web Server pros

"The best solution, by far, for web traffic control for things in production and just around the house."

"NGINX Plus' most valuable feature is the ingress controller."

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

"I need to highlight that the number one thing about NGINX is that it is free."

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

"Its most valuable features are load balancing and application delivery. This is the most efficient application for these features because of stability and its efficiency."

"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."

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

More NGINX Plus pros

Cons

"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."

"So far, for us, everything is okay."

"Adding a reverse proxy to Apache Web Server would be a significant improvement."

"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"

"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."

"The major issue occurs with ports. So, I would like to see easier port management."

"Its stability could be better."

More Apache Web Server cons

"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."

"The scalability could be improved."

"The center management system could be improved."

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

"The solution needs to be easier to setup and deploy."

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

"If NGINX brings some features for health check in the open source version, it would be better. "

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

More NGINX Plus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"It is an open-source solution."

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

"There is no licensing cost for the product."

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

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

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

"You pay for each feature that you want."

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

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

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

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

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

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

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	11

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Apache Web Server?

The product's initial setup phase is straightforward.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Web Server?

There are no fees associated with the usage of Apache Web Server in my projects. If you want to have support, then there is some cost, but today I do not know how many companies pay for that servic...

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What needs improvement with Apache Web Server?

I would like to see improvements in the functionality and core of Apache Web Server, focusing on building an infrastructure that can be resilient and robust enough to handle resource shortages, and...

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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,...

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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 Apache Web Server

Compared 31% of the time

Magic xpa Application Platform vs Apache Web Server

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft .NET Framework vs Apache Web Server

Compared 5% of the time

InterSystems Ensemble vs Apache Web Server

Compared 4% of the time

Windows Server AppFabric vs Apache Web Server

Compared 4% of the time

More Apache Web Server Competitors

IIS vs NGINX Plus

Compared 16% of the time

HAProxy vs NGINX Plus

Compared 9% of the time

NetScaler vs NGINX Plus

Compared 9% of the time

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

Compared 8% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs NGINX Plus

Compared 5% of the time

More NGINX Plus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Apache Web Server

January 2026

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Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus

January 2026

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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

February 2026

Free Report: Apache Web Server vs. NGINX Plus

Find out what your peers are saying about Apache Web Server vs. NGINX Plus and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.

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