NGINX Plus vs Zend PHP Engine comparison

F5 and Zend are both solutions in the Application Infrastructure category. F5 is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.6, while Zend is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.0. F5 holds a 9.3% mindshare in AIS, compared to Zend’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of F5 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zend users who would recommend it.

NGINX Plus

Read 32 NGINX Plus reviews

3,808 Views
1,485 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Zend PHP Engine

Read 11 Zend PHP Engine reviews

478 Views
478 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NGINX Plus

Zend PHP Engine

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

Zend PHP Engine and NGINX Plus compete in web development and server management. NGINX Plus emerges superior with its performance optimization and scalability.

Features: Zend PHP Engine offers robust debugging tools, seamless PHP execution, and code protection. NGINX Plus provides load balancing, advanced security, and high-performance content delivery.

Room for Improvement: Zend PHP Engine could enhance its scalability, expand support for diverse programming environments, and improve integration with modern frameworks. NGINX Plus might simplify initial setup processes, offer more affordable pricing options, and enhance its documentation for better usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zend PHP Engine is known for its easy deployment and PHP-focused support. NGINX Plus may require more initial configuration but offers comprehensive setup guides and responsive support for complex environments.

Pricing and ROI: Zend PHP Engine features competitive pricing, enhancing PHP developer productivity. NGINX Plus, despite higher setup costs, offers substantial ROI through performance optimization and server management cost savings.

To learn more, read our detailed NGINX Plus vs. Zend PHP Engine Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus vs. Zend PHP Engine

December 2025

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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

NGINX Plus

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (8th)

Zend PHP Engine

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of NGINX Plus is 9.3%, down from 11.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zend PHP Engine is 1.5%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Infrastructure Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
NGINX Plus	9.3%
Zend PHP Engine	1.5%
Other	89.2%

Application Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

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

SatyendraGupta

External Consultant (Digital Tool Developer and Intervention Specialist) at IQVIA

The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature

The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature. A general scripting language should be further developed and should be embedded into it. I have been Zend PHP Engine for nine years. Multiple people are using the solution. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.…

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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

"With NGINX, I appreciate its ability to route traffic geographically."

"-"

"I receive very good support."

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

"The product is resilient."

"The primary valuable feature of NGINX for me is its ability to provide a reverse proxy."

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

"I utilize NGINX for its capability to provide visibility and discovery options, helping discover and identify networks, which is crucial for ensuring application performance, managing latency, and checking server reachability."

More NGINX Plus pros

"Faster web app implementation, when PHP dev is required by customers."

"Zend Engine is the core of PHP. It makes PHP fast, efficient, and basically, the language of choice for web applications."

"Scaling up is an important factor for large projects, and with PHP 7 and its performance improvements, this becomes even easier."

"Zend Engine gives the flexibility to use external modules to easily expand the functionalities you need for your web project."

"The Zend Framework provides an easy, open source way to produce coding based on the needs of our customers."

"The solution's initial setup process is easy."

"Zend PHP Engine is a good tool for developing and collecting data, offering strong performance."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the speed at which it compiles and sends the dynamic cache."

More Zend PHP Engine pros

Cons

"I would like the configuration process to be more simplified."

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

"Make modules easier to enable or disable. The beauty and ugly side of the NGINX modules is you have to know how to compile the module. For beginners or non-very technical aspirant(s) going for NGINX, they have to learn how to compile the modules."

"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."

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

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

"They should do in the open source version of what they did to Advanced HTTP, TCP, and UDP load balancing."

"Improvement needed in NGINX Plus could focus on optimizing memory usage for users."

More NGINX Plus cons

"The biggest problem with PHP is you have to write lot of conditions or have to use a framework."

"Integrating AI tools would make PHP more competitive, as other tools already have AI features."

"Its object oriented programming language needs improvement."

"The process of installing and configuring the product is a bit complex and could be improved."

"In terms of improvement, it doesn't support concurrent processing. When we want to process anything on a concurrent basis, we have to divide it into a number of things, like a queue, or we have to run it using Cron jobs. We would like to have the capability to run any thread or process in parallel."

"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."

"Although it offers a complete environment to develop and deploy PHP applications, it has some limitations. For example, when the volume of data increased exponentially, I had problems scaling the system."

"Zend PHP Engine needs to improve the loading time of its libraries and make it faster."

More Zend PHP Engine cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"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."

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

"It's an open source solution, so it's free."

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

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

"The cost is reasonable."

More NGINX Plus pricing and cost advice

"The Zend PHP engine is open source technology, so there's no need for us to worry about licensing or other costs."

"The solution is open source and you just pay for the server cost."

"Zend PHP Engine is not an expensive solution."

"Its pricing depends on the number of users."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Government

Insurance Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Large Enterprise	2

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,...

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 any costs.

See all answers

What do you like most about Zend PHP Engine?

The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zend PHP Engine?

PHP is an open-source solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zend PHP Engine?

Integrating AI tools would make PHP more competitive, as other tools already have AI features.

See all answers

Comparisons

IIS vs NGINX Plus

Compared 17% of the time

Apache Web Server vs NGINX Plus

Compared 15% of the time

NetScaler vs NGINX Plus

Compared 10% of the time

HAProxy vs NGINX Plus

Compared 9% of the time

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

Compared 9% of the time

More NGINX Plus Competitors

Apache Web Server vs Zend PHP Engine

Compared 48% of the time

More Zend PHP Engine Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus

December 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

November 2025

Download Zend PHP Engine product report

Also Known As

NGINX

PHP Engine

Overview

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.

The Zend PHP Engine is designed to optimize PHP code and improve performance, making it a popular choice for web developers. It is easy to use, stable, does not require a lot of code, is open source, and only requires payment for server costs. The initial setup is straightforward, and there is no real need to set up the solution because it's built into the deployment.

Zend

Sample Customers

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

Cisco

Buyer's Guide

NGINX Plus vs. Zend PHP Engine

December 2025

Free Report: NGINX Plus vs. Zend PHP Engine

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