Microsoft IIS vs NGINX

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

Microsoft IIS

15.2K
7.5K
+ 1
236
NGINX

111.8K
59.7K
+ 1
5.5K
Add tool

Microsoft IIS vs nginx: What are the differences?

Both Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services) and nginx are popular web server software used to host websites. However, there are key differences between the two:

  1. Operating systems: Microsoft IIS is designed to run on Windows operating systems, while nginx can run on both Windows and Unix-based systems.

  2. Architecture: Microsoft IIS follows a modular architecture, where different features can be installed separately. On the other hand, nginx follows an event-driven, asynchronous architecture, which allows it to handle a large number of concurrent connections efficiently.

  3. Performance: nginx is known for its high performance and low memory footprint. It is designed to handle a large number of simultaneous connections and is often used for serving static content efficiently. Microsoft IIS, on the other hand, is more resource-intensive and better suited for hosting dynamic websites.

  4. Configuration: Microsoft IIS has a graphical interface (IIS Manager) that allows users to easily configure and manage websites. nginx, on the other hand, uses a configuration file written in plain text, which may require more technical expertise to modify.

  5. Support: Microsoft IIS has a larger user base and is well-supported by Microsoft, with regular updates and patches. nginx also has a strong community support, and its open-source nature allows for community-contributed modules.

  6. Market share: Microsoft IIS has traditionally been a popular choice for hosting websites on Windows servers, particularly in enterprise environments. nginx, on the other hand, has gained popularity in recent years and is now often used as a reverse proxy or load balancer in front of other web servers.

In summary, while both Microsoft IIS and nginx are capable web server software, they differ in terms of operating systems, architecture, performance, configuration, support, and market share.

Advice on Microsoft IIS and NGINX

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!

See more
Replies (1)
Simon Aronsson
Developer Advocate at k6 / Load Impact · | 4 upvotes · 634.8K 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.

See more
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."

See more
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.

See more
Leandro Barral
Recommends
on
NGINXNGINX

I use nginx because its more flexible and easy to configure

See more
Christian Cwienk
Software Developer at SAP · | 1 upvotes · 604K views
Recommends
on
Apache HTTP ServerApache HTTP Server

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

See more
Decisions about Microsoft IIS and NGINX
Daniel Calvo
Co-Founder at Polpo Data Analytics & Software Development · | 8 upvotes · 213K 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.

See more
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.
See more
Get Advice from developers at your company using StackShare Enterprise. Sign up for StackShare Enterprise.
Learn More
Pros of Microsoft IIS
Pros of NGINX
  • 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
  • 893
    Performance
  • 730
    Easy to configure
  • 607
    Open source
  • 530
    Load balancer
  • 288
    Free
  • 288
    Scalability
  • 225
    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
    Reversy Proxy
  • 3
    Streaming media delivery
  • 3
    Streaming media
  • 3
    Embedded Lua scripting
  • 2
    GRPC-Web
  • 2
    Blash
  • 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

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of Microsoft IIS
Cons of NGINX
  • 1
    Hard to set up
  • 10
    Advanced features require subscription

Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

- No public GitHub repository available -

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.

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

Jobs that mention Microsoft IIS and NGINX as a desired skillset
What companies use Microsoft IIS?
What companies use NGINX?
See which teams inside your own company are using Microsoft IIS or NGINX.
Sign up for StackShare EnterpriseLearn More

Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

What tools integrate with Microsoft IIS?
What tools integrate with NGINX?

Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

Blog Posts

What are some alternatives to Microsoft IIS and NGINX?
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat powers numerous large-scale, mission-critical web applications across a diverse range of industries and organizations.
Microsoft SharePoint
It empowers teamwork with dynamic and productive team sites for every project team, department, and division. Share and manage content, knowledge, and applications to empower teamwork, quickly find information, and seamlessly collaborate across the organization.
Apache HTTP Server
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.
OpenResty
OpenResty (aka. ngx_openresty) is a full-fledged web application server by bundling the standard Nginx core, lots of 3rd-party Nginx modules, as well as most of their external dependencies.
LiteSpeed
It is a drop-in Apache replacement and the leading high-performance, high-scalability server. You can replace your existing Apache server with it without changing your configuration or operating system details. As a drop-in replacement, it allows you to quickly eliminate Apache bottlenecks in 15 minutes with zero downtime.
See all alternatives