Overview

Apache HTTP Server

Stacks64.9K

Followers22.8K

Votes1.4K

GitHub Stars3.8K

Forks1.2K

NGINX

Stacks114.7K

Followers61.9K

Votes5.5K

GitHub Stars28.4K

Forks7.6K

Microsoft IIS

Stacks15.6K

Followers7.7K

Votes236

Apache HTTP Server vs Microsoft IIS vs nginx: What are the differences?

Apache HTTP Server, Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), and nginx are prominent web servers. Let's explore the key differences between them.

Request Processing Models: Apache HTTP Server follows a process-based model where each request spawns a new process or thread. This can lead to resource consumption and scalability issues under high loads. In contrast, Microsoft IIS and nginx follow an event-based model, where a limited number of threads handle multiple requests asynchronously. This allows them to handle a larger number of concurrent connections efficiently.
Operating System Compatibility: Apache HTTP Server is compatible with various operating systems like Unix, Linux, Windows, and macOS. Microsoft IIS, on the other hand, is only compatible with Windows operating systems. nginx, being designed with performance and high concurrency in mind, is compatible with Unix-like systems, including Linux and BSD variants, as well as Windows.
Configuration: Apache HTTP Server has a complex configuration system using the Apache Configuration Language (ACL) or XML-based format. It provides extensive flexibility and customization options but can be overwhelming for beginners. Microsoft IIS uses a graphical user interface (GUI) for configuration, making it more user-friendly for administrators who prefer a visual interface. nginx uses a simple, text-based configuration format that is easy to understand and requires less memory compared to Apache.
Modules and Extensions: Apache HTTP Server has a vast ecosystem of modules and extensions developed by the community, offering extended functionality and support for various web technologies. Microsoft IIS also supports additional functionalities through modules, but the range is more limited compared to Apache. nginx has a modular architecture similar to Apache, allowing the addition of various third-party modules, but its ecosystem is smaller compared to Apache.
Performance and Scalability: Apache HTTP Server has a strong focus on stability and support for legacy setups, which can affect its performance under heavy traffic. Microsoft IIS is optimized for Windows and performs well in Windows environments but may not be as efficient as nginx in high-concurrency scenarios. nginx is renowned for its high-performance capabilities, efficient resource utilization, and handling of concurrent connections, making it a preferred choice for websites with heavy traffic.
Open Source vs. Commercial: Apache HTTP Server is an open-source web server available under the Apache License, making it free to use and customize. Microsoft IIS is a proprietary web server included with Microsoft Windows, and its full functionality requires a Windows Server license. nginx is available in both open-source and commercial versions. The open-source version provides most of the essential features, but additional functionalities, support, and advanced configurations may require a commercial license.

In summary, Apache is renowned for its versatility and community support, IIS excels in Windows environments with tight integration with other Microsoft services, and nginx stands out for its performance and scalability, making it a popular choice for modern, high-traffic websites and applications.

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Advice on Apache HTTP Server, NGINX, Microsoft IIS

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	Microsoft IIS
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.	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.
Statistics
GitHub Stars 3.8K	GitHub Stars 28.4K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 1.2K	GitHub Forks 7.6K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 64.9K	Stacks 114.7K	Stacks 15.6K
Followers 22.8K	Followers 61.9K	Followers 7.7K
Votes 1.4K	Votes 5.5K	Votes 236
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 1452 High-performance http server 894 Performance 730 Easy to configure 607 Open source 530 Load balancer Cons 10 Advanced features require subscription	Pros 83 Great with .net 55 I'm forced to use iis 27 Use nginx 18 Azure integration 15 Best for ms technologyes ms bullshit Cons 1 Hard to set up

What are some alternatives to Apache HTTP Server, NGINX, Microsoft IIS?

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.

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.

Cowboy

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.