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Actix vs nginx: What are the differences?
## Key Differences between Actix and nginx
Actix and nginx are both widely used technologies in the field of web servers. While they both serve the purpose of handling client requests and serving responses, there are several key differences between the two.
1. **Architecture**: Actix is a high-powered, actor-based framework for building web applications in Rust, while nginx is a lightweight, open-source web server. Actix uses an event-driven, non-blocking architecture, allowing for high concurrency and scalability. Nginx, on the other hand, uses a multi-process, multi-threaded architecture.
2. **Language**: Actix is built specifically for the Rust programming language, allowing developers to take advantage of Rust’s memory safety and performance benefits. Nginx, on the other hand, is written in C and can be extended using various scripting languages like Lua.
3. **Flexibility**: Actix provides developers with a flexible and modular framework for building web applications, allowing for easy customization and extensibility. Nginx, on the other hand, is primarily designed as a web server and reverse proxy, providing a more focused set of features.
4. **Configuration**: Actix applications are typically configured using code, allowing for dynamic configuration and easy deployment. Nginx, on the other hand, uses a configuration file that needs to be manually edited, requiring a server restart for changes to take effect.
5. **Performance**: Actix is known for its exceptional performance and low resource usage, making it a great choice for high-performance applications. Nginx also performs well and is often used as a load balancer or reverse proxy, but Actix's event-driven architecture gives it an edge in certain scenarios.
6. **Community and Ecosystem**: Actix is a relatively newer technology and has a smaller community compared to nginx. Nginx, being a mature and widely adopted web server, has a large and active community, along with extensive documentation and third-party extensions.
In summary, Actix and nginx differ in their architecture, language, flexibility, configuration, performance, and community. Actix provides a highly performant and flexible framework for building web applications in Rust, while nginx is a lightweight web server and reverse proxy with a large community and extensive ecosystem.
I am diving into web development, both front and back end. I feel comfortable with administration, scripting and moderate coding in bash, Python and C++, but I am also a Windows fan (i love inner conflict). What are the votes on web servers? IIS is expensive and restrictive (has Windows adoption of open source changed this?) Apache has the history but seems to be at the root of most of my Infosec issues, and I know nothing about nginx (is it too new to rely on?). And no, I don't know what I want to do on the web explicitly, but hosting and data storage (both cloud and tape) are possibilities. Ready, aim fire!
I would pick nginx over both IIS and Apace HTTP Server any day. Combine it with docker, and as you grow maybe even traefik, and you'll have a really flexible solution for serving http content where you can take sites and projects up and down without effort, easily move it between systems and dont have to handle any dependencies on your actual local machine.
From a StackShare Community member: "We are a LAMP shop currently focused on improving web performance for our customers. We have made many front-end optimizations and now we are considering replacing Apache with nginx. I was wondering if others saw a noticeable performance gain or any other benefits by switching."
I use nginx because it is very light weight. Where Apache tries to include everything in the web server, nginx opts to have external programs/facilities take care of that so the web server can focus on efficiently serving web pages. While this can seem inefficient, it limits the number of new bugs found in the web server, which is the element that faces the client most directly.
I use nginx because its more flexible and easy to configure
I use Apache HTTP Server because it's intuitive, comprehensive, well-documented, and just works
Pros of Actix
- Really really really fast6
- Very safe3
- Rust3
- Open source2
Pros of NGINX
- High-performance http server1.4K
- Performance893
- Easy to configure730
- Open source607
- Load balancer530
- Free288
- Scalability288
- Web server225
- Simplicity175
- Easy setup136
- Content caching30
- Web Accelerator21
- Capability15
- Fast14
- High-latency12
- Predictability12
- Reverse Proxy8
- The best of them7
- Supports http/27
- Great Community5
- Lots of Modules5
- Enterprise version5
- High perfomance proxy server4
- Reversy Proxy3
- Streaming media delivery3
- Streaming media3
- Embedded Lua scripting3
- GRPC-Web2
- Blash2
- Lightweight2
- Fast and easy to set up2
- Slim2
- saltstack2
- Virtual hosting1
- Narrow focus. Easy to configure. Fast1
- Along with Redis Cache its the Most superior1
- Ingress controller1
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Cons of Actix
- Lots of unsafe code3
Cons of NGINX
- Advanced features require subscription10