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NGINX Controller vs NGINX Plus comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
22nd
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
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)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of NGINX Controller is 1.1%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX Plus is 8.0%, down from 10.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NGINX Plus8.0%
NGINX Controller1.1%
Other90.9%
Application Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

SP
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…
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.

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."
"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."
"I need to highlight that the number one thing about NGINX is that it is free."
"NGINX has created a resilient infrastructure for us which has reduced our downtimes."
"I think installation only took a couple of minutes — no more than 10 minutes."
"NGINX Plus also has NGINX App Protect. It's a separate module, which is inspired by the F5 apps."
"I think NGINX Plus is one of the most powerful and fittest solutions in this area, and I'd recommend it to others."
"The primary valuable feature of NGINX for me is its ability to provide a reverse proxy."
"Application Gateway with application-level firewall tool and load distributor and balancer (also serves for A/B testing)."
 

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."
"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 is not cost-effective, especially for few applications, and is considered higher-priced."
"The user interface could be improved."
"Compared to other similar solutions on the market, I think it's over-priced."
"The solution's GUI is an area with certain shortcomings that need improvement."
"The center management system could be improved."
"Instance service health check on the NGINX load balancer feature could be improved."
"The scalability could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Compared to other similar solutions on the market, I think it's over-priced."
"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."
"There's an open-source version of NGINX that is free."
"​NGINX is a free tool in Brazil. There are some companies which do support it.​"
"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."
"I use the solution's community edition which is free of cost."
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908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise11
 

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.
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.
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...
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....
 

Also Known As

No data available
NGINX, F5 NGINX Plus
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Locaweb, AppNexus, Wix, Reliam, Montana Interactive, MuleSoft, Warpwire, Discovery Education, InkaBinka, WordPress.com, Gogo, GOV.UK, NASA
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, F5, Apache and others in Application Infrastructure. Updated: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.