Apache HTTP Server vs Cowboy vs nginx

Overview

Apache HTTP Server

Stacks64.5K

Followers22.8K

Votes1.4K

GitHub Stars3.8K

Forks1.2K

NGINX

Stacks115.0K

Followers61.9K

Votes5.5K

GitHub Stars28.4K

Forks7.6K

Cowboy

Stacks711

Followers72

Votes19

GitHub Stars7.4K

Forks1.2K

Apache HTTP Server vs Cowboy vs nginx: What are the differences?

Architecture: Apache HTTP Server uses a multi-process, multi-threaded architecture, allowing it to handle a high volume of requests efficiently. Cowboy, on the other hand, uses a single-threaded, event-driven architecture which makes it highly efficient for handling a large number of concurrent connections. Nginx also follows an event-driven architecture, but it is known for its lightweight and efficient handling of static content.
Configuration: Apache HTTP Server has a complex configuration syntax which can be challenging for beginners, but it offers a wide range of configuration options for customization. Cowboy has a simpler configuration compared to Apache, making it easier to set up and manage. Nginx also has a straightforward configuration syntax that is easy to understand and work with.
Performance: When it comes to performance, Cowboy and Nginx are known for their high performance and low resource consumption, making them ideal choices for handling a large number of concurrent requests. Apache HTTP Server, while still a powerful web server, may not be as efficient in handling high traffic loads compared to Cowboy and Nginx due to its multi-process architecture.
Modules: Apache HTTP Server has a vast collection of modules that extend its functionality, allowing users to customize their server for different purposes. Cowboy and Nginx, on the other hand, have a more limited selection of modules, but they are designed to be lightweight and efficient out of the box without the need for extensive customization.
Supported Languages: Apache HTTP Server supports a wide range of programming languages and technologies, making it a versatile choice for hosting dynamic websites. Cowboy and Nginx are more focused on supporting specific programming languages and frameworks, such as Erlang for Cowboy and Nginx for Nginx, making them suitable for specific use cases.
Community Support: Apache HTTP Server has a large and active community of developers and users who contribute to its development and provide support through forums and online resources. Cowboy and Nginx also have strong communities, but they may not be as extensive as the Apache community, which can affect the availability of resources and support.

In Summary, Apache HTTP Server, Cowboy, and Nginx differ in their architecture, configuration, performance, modules, supported languages, and community support, making each suitable for different web hosting needs.

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Advice on Apache HTTP Server, NGINX, Cowboy

Daniel

Co-Founder at Polpo Data Analytics & Software Development

May 25, 2021

Decided

For us, NGINX is a lite HTTP server easy to configure. On our research, we found a well-documented software we a lot of support from the community.

We have been using it alongside tools like certbot and it has been a total success.

We can easily configure our sites and have a folder for available vs enabled sites, and with the nginx -t command we can easily check everything is running fine.

289k views289k

Comments

Hari

Mar 3, 2020

Needs advice

I was in a situation where I have to configure 40 RHEL servers 20 each for Apache HTTP Server and Tomcat server. My task was to

configure LVM with required logical volumes, format and mount for HTTP and Tomcat servers accordingly.
Install apache and tomcat.
Generate and apply selfsigned certs to http server.
Modify default ports on Tomcat to different ports.
Create users on RHEL for application support team.
other administrative tasks like, start, stop and restart HTTP and Tomcat services.

I have utilized the power of ansible for all these tasks, which made it easy and manageable.

419k views419k

Comments

greg00m

Mar 9, 2020

Needs advice

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!

766k views766k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Apache HTTP Server	NGINX	Cowboy
The Apache HTTP Server is a powerful and flexible HTTP/1.1 compliant web server. Originally designed as a replacement for the NCSA HTTP Server, it has grown to be the most popular web server on the Internet.	nginx [engine x] is an HTTP and reverse proxy server, as well as a mail proxy server, written by Igor Sysoev. According to Netcraft nginx served or proxied 30.46% of the top million busiest sites in Jan 2018.	Cowboy aims to provide a complete HTTP stack in a small code base. It is optimized for low latency and low memory usage, in part because it uses binary strings. Cowboy provides routing capabilities, selectively dispatching requests to handlers written in Erlang.
Statistics
GitHub Stars 3.8K	GitHub Stars 28.4K	GitHub Stars 7.4K
GitHub Forks 1.2K	GitHub Forks 7.6K	GitHub Forks 1.2K
Stacks 64.5K	Stacks 115.0K	Stacks 711
Followers 22.8K	Followers 61.9K	Followers 72
Votes 1.4K	Votes 5.5K	Votes 19
Pros & Cons
Pros 479 Web server 305 Most widely-used web server 217 Virtual hosting 148 Fast 138 Ssl support Cons 4 Hard to set up	Pros 1453 High-performance http server 895 Performance 730 Easy to configure 607 Open source 530 Load balancer Cons 10 Advanced features require subscription	Pros 8 Websockets integration 6 Cool name 3 Good to use with Erlang 2 Anime mascot

What are some alternatives to Apache HTTP Server, NGINX, Cowboy?

Unicorn

Unicorn is an HTTP server for Rack applications designed to only serve fast clients on low-latency, high-bandwidth connections and take advantage of features in Unix/Unix-like kernels. Slow clients should only be served by placing a reverse proxy capable of fully buffering both the the request and response in between Unicorn and slow clients.

Microsoft IIS

Internet Information Services (IIS) for Windows Server is a flexible, secure and manageable Web server for hosting anything on the Web. From media streaming to web applications, IIS's scalable and open architecture is ready to handle the most demanding tasks.

Apache Tomcat

Apache Tomcat powers numerous large-scale, mission-critical web applications across a diverse range of industries and organizations.

Passenger

Phusion Passenger is a web server and application server, designed to be fast, robust and lightweight. It takes a lot of complexity out of deploying web apps, adds powerful enterprise-grade features that are useful in production, and makes administration much easier and less complex.

Gunicorn

Gunicorn is a pre-fork worker model ported from Ruby's Unicorn project. The Gunicorn server is broadly compatible with various web frameworks, simply implemented, light on server resources, and fairly speedy.

Jetty

Jetty is used in a wide variety of projects and products, both in development and production. Jetty can be easily embedded in devices, tools, frameworks, application servers, and clusters. See the Jetty Powered page for more uses of Jetty.

lighttpd

lighttpd has a very low memory footprint compared to other webservers and takes care of cpu-load. Its advanced feature-set (FastCGI, CGI, Auth, Output-Compression, URL-Rewriting and many more) make lighttpd the perfect webserver-software for every server that suffers load problems.

Swoole

It is an open source high-performance network framework using an event-driven, asynchronous, non-blocking I/O model which makes it scalable and efficient.

Puma

Unlike other Ruby Webservers, Puma was built for speed and parallelism. Puma is a small library that provides a very fast and concurrent HTTP 1.1 server for Ruby web applications.

Caddy

Caddy 2 is a powerful, enterprise-ready, open source web server with automatic HTTPS written in Go.

Related Comparisons

Apache HTTP Server vs Cowboy vs nginx: What are the differences?

Architecture: Apache HTTP Server uses a multi-process, multi-threaded architecture, allowing it to handle a high volume of requests efficiently. Cowboy, on the other hand, uses a single-threaded, event-driven architecture which makes it highly efficient for handling a large number of concurrent connections. Nginx also follows an event-driven architecture, but it is known for its lightweight and efficient handling of static content.
Configuration: Apache HTTP Server has a complex configuration syntax which can be challenging for beginners, but it offers a wide range of configuration options for customization. Cowboy has a simpler configuration compared to Apache, making it easier to set up and manage. Nginx also has a straightforward configuration syntax that is easy to understand and work with.
Performance: When it comes to performance, Cowboy and Nginx are known for their high performance and low resource consumption, making them ideal choices for handling a large number of concurrent requests. Apache HTTP Server, while still a powerful web server, may not be as efficient in handling high traffic loads compared to Cowboy and Nginx due to its multi-process architecture.
Modules: Apache HTTP Server has a vast collection of modules that extend its functionality, allowing users to customize their server for different purposes. Cowboy and Nginx, on the other hand, have a more limited selection of modules, but they are designed to be lightweight and efficient out of the box without the need for extensive customization.
Supported Languages: Apache HTTP Server supports a wide range of programming languages and technologies, making it a versatile choice for hosting dynamic websites. Cowboy and Nginx are more focused on supporting specific programming languages and frameworks, such as Erlang for Cowboy and Nginx for Nginx, making them suitable for specific use cases.
Community Support: Apache HTTP Server has a large and active community of developers and users who contribute to its development and provide support through forums and online resources. Cowboy and Nginx also have strong communities, but they may not be as extensive as the Apache community, which can affect the availability of resources and support.

Apache HTTP Server vs Cowboy vs nginx

Overview