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NGINX Plus vs Zend PHP Engine comparison

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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) (12th)
Zend PHP Engine
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
14th
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 November 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of NGINX Plus is 7.9%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zend PHP Engine is 2.7%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NGINX Plus7.9%
Zend PHP Engine2.7%
Other89.4%
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 Plus' most valuable feature is the ingress controller."
"The primary valuable feature of NGINX for me is its ability to provide a reverse proxy."
"I would recommend this solution."
"I receive very good support."
"NGINX has created a resilient infrastructure for us which has reduced our downtimes."
"Zero Downtime has always been a strength in recommending infrastructure web services, and NGINX allows me to execute such infrastructure with less complications and the ability to switch from server to server easily."
"​The flexibility of its modules allow it to be scalable.​"
"When you use NGINX, you have more options and power."
"The cache modules that Zend provides have been able to optimize and accelerate the loading of the pages when there was exponential growth in data volume and quantity of requests. At the same time, the monitoring console allowed us to have a real-time understanding of the resources and to make decisions when they were at the limit."
"Zend PHP Engine is a good tool for developing and collecting data, offering strong performance."
"The solution's initial setup process is easy."
"It offers good support for various types of classes, along with many open source libraries that we can readily utilize in our application development process. This gives us a lot of options when it comes to custom development solutions, without having to worry about licensing or other programming-related issues."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the speed at which it compiles and sends the dynamic cache."
"Offers a complete environment to develop PHP applications. It is valuable because it allows you to have a complete stack (PHP, MySQL, Zend Server) enabling the building of a development environment, and to deploy to the production system."
"We have not encountered issues with scalability as long as we effectively use caching to optimize performance of our web applications as well as a proper use of database connectivity."
"Zend PHP Engine is more secure than any other framework, and I usually prefer Zend PHP Engine for big applications."
 

Cons

"I would like the configuration process to be more simplified."
"The drawback is that you must obtain a license for everything."
"Initially, I experienced hiccups whenever I installed the application. As with any application, there were initial issues, however, after receiving support, everything was rectified."
"It would be great if there was even more automation to make it even easier to maintain."
"I would like to see the Grafana integration in NGINX which is already present in HAProxy. Grafana integration will help the solution visualize all the data analytics on the dashboard which is currently not present."
"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."
"The solution needs to be easier to setup and deploy."
"They should do in the open source version of what they did to Advanced HTTP, TCP, and UDP load balancing."
"Integrating AI tools would make PHP more competitive, as other tools already have AI features."
"Its object oriented programming language needs improvement."
"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."
"Zend PHP Engine needs to improve the loading time of its libraries and make it faster."
"The platform is not satisfying to me -- it is just not up to standards performance wise."
"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.​​"
"The biggest problem with PHP is you have to write lot of conditions or have to use a framework."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You pay for each feature that you want."
"There's an open-source version of NGINX that is free."
"The list price of NGINX Plus is close to $5,500."
"Compared to other similar solutions on the market, I think it's over-priced."
"The cost is reasonable."
"It's an open source solution, so it's free."
"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."
"The Zend PHP engine is open source technology, so there's no need for us to worry about licensing or other costs."
"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."
"Its pricing depends on the number of users."
"Zend PHP Engine is not an expensive solution."
"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
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Construction Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
13%
 

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: November 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.