Microsoft IIS vs NGINX vs Apache Tomcat

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Microsoft IIS

15.3K
7.6K
+ 1
236
NGINX

113.1K
60.7K
+ 1
5.5K
Apache Tomcat

16.5K
12.3K
+ 1
201

Apache Tomcat vs Microsoft IIS vs nginx: What are the differences?

Apache Tomcat vs Microsoft IIS and nginx

Apache Tomcat, Microsoft IIS, and nginx are popular web server software used to host and serve web applications. These servers have different features and capabilities that set them apart from each other. The key differences between Apache Tomcat, Microsoft IIS, and nginx are:

  1. Purpose and Functionality:

    • Apache Tomcat is a powerful Java-based web server and servlet container. It is mainly used to run Java web applications.
    • Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services) is a web server software developed by Microsoft. It supports a wide range of web technologies and is commonly used to host ASP.NET applications.
    • nginx is a lightweight yet efficient web server known for its high performance and scalability. It can handle a large number of simultaneous connections and is often used to serve static content and act as a reverse proxy.
  2. Operating System Compatibility:

    • Apache Tomcat is a cross-platform server, supporting various operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and macOS.
    • Microsoft IIS, being a product of Microsoft, is primarily designed to run on Windows operating systems. It does not have official support for other operating systems.
    • nginx is also cross-platform and runs on multiple operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS.
  3. Web Application Support:

    • Apache Tomcat is specifically tailored for Java web applications and supports the Java Servlet, JavaServer Pages (JSP), and Java Expression Language (JSTL) technologies.
    • Microsoft IIS supports a wide range of web technologies such as ASP.NET, PHP, Python, and Node.js. It provides extensive features and integration with the Microsoft ecosystem.
    • nginx can serve various web applications written in different programming languages, including but not limited to PHP, Python, Ruby, and Go. It is known for its ease of configuration and flexibility.
  4. Performance and Scalability:

    • Apache Tomcat provides good performance for Java-based web applications but may face limitations in handling a large number of concurrent requests.
    • Microsoft IIS is designed to work efficiently with Windows and provides good performance with ASP.NET and other Microsoft technologies. It can handle a significant number of concurrent connections.
    • nginx is renowned for its high performance and ability to handle a large number of concurrent connections. It utilizes an event-driven architecture, making it extremely efficient and scalable.
  5. Configuration and Administration:

    • Apache Tomcat can be configured using XML-based configuration files, and it provides a web-based management interface called Tomcat Manager.
    • Microsoft IIS offers a graphical user interface (GUI) for easy configuration and administration. It also provides a command-line interface and can be managed through PowerShell commands.
    • nginx utilizes a simple and intuitive configuration file format. It has a command-line interface and provides mechanisms for dynamic configuration reload without downtime.
  6. Community and Support:

    • Apache Tomcat has a large and active community, providing extensive documentation, tutorials, and support through forums and mailing lists.
    • Microsoft IIS benefits from the strong Microsoft ecosystem and has a vast user base. It offers official documentation, support forums, and resources.
    • nginx has gained popularity due to its performance and ease of use. It has an active community, provides detailed documentation, and offers commercial support options.

In summary, Apache Tomcat focuses on running Java web applications, Microsoft IIS is tailored for Windows-based environments and ASP.NET applications, while nginx excels in performance and scalability, offering support for various programming languages and serving static content efficiently. The choice of a web server depends on specific requirements, technology stack, and performance needs.

Advice on Microsoft IIS, NGINX, and Apache Tomcat

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!

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Replies (1)
Simon Aronsson
Developer Advocate at k6 / Load Impact · | 4 upvotes · 709.4K views
Recommends
on
NGINXNGINX

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.

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Needs advice
on
Apache HTTP ServerApache HTTP Server
and
NGINXNGINX

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."

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Replies (3)
Recommends
on
NGINXNGINX

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.

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Leandro Barral
Recommends
on
NGINXNGINX

I use nginx because its more flexible and easy to configure

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Christian Cwienk
Software Developer at SAP · | 1 upvotes · 675.9K views
Recommends
on
Apache HTTP ServerApache HTTP Server

I use Apache HTTP Server because it's intuitive, comprehensive, well-documented, and just works

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Decisions about Microsoft IIS, NGINX, and Apache Tomcat
Daniel Calvo
Co-Founder at Polpo Data Analytics & Software Development · | 8 upvotes · 265.5K views

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.

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Grant Steuart
  • Server rendered HTML output from PHP is being migrated to the client as Vue.js components, future plans to provide additional content, and other new miscellaneous features all result in a substantial increase of static files needing to be served from the server. NGINX has better performance than Apache for serving static content.
  • The change to NGINX will require switching from PHP to PHP-FPM resulting in a distributed architecture with a higher complexity configuration, but this is outweighed by PHP-FPM being faster than PHP for processing requests.
  • The NGINX + PHP-FPM setup now allows for horizontally scaling of resources rather vertically scaling the previously combined Apache + PHP resources.
  • PHP shell tasks can now efficiently be decoupled from the application reducing main application footprint and allow for scaling of tasks on an individual basis.
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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 1. configure LVM with required logical volumes, format and mount for HTTP and Tomcat servers accordingly. 2. Install apache and tomcat. 3. Generate and apply selfsigned certs to http server. 4. Modify default ports on Tomcat to different ports. 5. Create users on RHEL for application support team. 6. 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.

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Pros of Microsoft IIS
Pros of NGINX
Pros of Apache Tomcat
  • 83
    Great with .net
  • 55
    I'm forced to use iis
  • 27
    Use nginx
  • 18
    Azure integration
  • 15
    Best for ms technologyes ms bullshit
  • 10
    Fast
  • 6
    Reliable
  • 6
    Performance
  • 4
    Powerful
  • 3
    Simple to configure
  • 3
    Webserver
  • 2
    Easy setup
  • 1
    Shipped with Windows Server
  • 1
    Ssl integration
  • 1
    Security
  • 1
    Охуенный
  • 1.4K
    High-performance http server
  • 894
    Performance
  • 730
    Easy to configure
  • 607
    Open source
  • 530
    Load balancer
  • 289
    Free
  • 288
    Scalability
  • 226
    Web server
  • 175
    Simplicity
  • 136
    Easy setup
  • 30
    Content caching
  • 21
    Web Accelerator
  • 15
    Capability
  • 14
    Fast
  • 12
    High-latency
  • 12
    Predictability
  • 8
    Reverse Proxy
  • 7
    The best of them
  • 7
    Supports http/2
  • 5
    Great Community
  • 5
    Lots of Modules
  • 5
    Enterprise version
  • 4
    High perfomance proxy server
  • 3
    Embedded Lua scripting
  • 3
    Streaming media delivery
  • 3
    Streaming media
  • 3
    Reversy Proxy
  • 2
    Blash
  • 2
    GRPC-Web
  • 2
    Lightweight
  • 2
    Fast and easy to set up
  • 2
    Slim
  • 2
    saltstack
  • 1
    Virtual hosting
  • 1
    Narrow focus. Easy to configure. Fast
  • 1
    Along with Redis Cache its the Most superior
  • 1
    Ingress controller
  • 79
    Easy
  • 72
    Java
  • 49
    Popular
  • 1
    Spring web

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Cons of Microsoft IIS
Cons of NGINX
Cons of Apache Tomcat
  • 1
    Hard to set up
  • 10
    Advanced features require subscription
  • 3
    Blocking - each http request block a thread
  • 2
    Easy to set up

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What is 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.

What is NGINX?

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.

What is Apache Tomcat?

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

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