Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Certbot VS Nginx Proxy Manager

Compare Certbot VS Nginx Proxy Manager and see what are their differences

Certbot logo Certbot

Automatically enable HTTPS on your website with EFF's Certbot, deploying Let's Encrypt certificates.

Nginx Proxy Manager logo Nginx Proxy Manager

Docker container and built in Web Application for managing Nginx proxy hosts with a simple, powerful interface, providing free SSL support via Let's Encrypt
  • Certbot Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-09-26
  • Nginx Proxy Manager Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-06-17

Certbot features and specs

  • Free of Charge
    Certbot, developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, provides SSL certificates for free, which can help reduce costs for individual users, small businesses, and startups.
  • Ease of Use
    Certbot automates the process of obtaining and renewing SSL certificates, simplifying the often complex setup and maintenance tasks associated with manual certificate management.
  • Security
    By providing SSL certificates, Certbot enables websites to use HTTPS, securing data transmitted between the server and clients. This helps protect user privacy and data integrity.
  • Wide Compatibility
    Certbot supports a wide range of operating systems and web servers, including Apache, Nginx, and more. This versatility makes it suitable for a diverse array of environments.
  • Community Support
    As an open-source project with a large user base, Certbot benefits from strong community support, providing extensive documentation, user forums, and other resources for troubleshooting and development.

Possible disadvantages of Certbot

  • Short Certificate Lifespan
    Certbot issues certificates that are valid for only 90 days. While Certbot offers automated renewal, this short lifespan can be a drawback for users who prefer long-term certificates.
  • Resource-Intensive
    The automation scripts and background processes required for Certbot's functionality can be resource-intensive, potentially impacting performance, particularly on low-spec systems.
  • Learning Curve
    While designed to simplify certificate management, setting up Certbot initially can be challenging for those unfamiliar with command-line operations and server configurations.
  • Dependency on Let's Encrypt
    Certbot exclusively relies on certificates from Let's Encrypt. Users who need advanced features or certifications that Let's Encrypt does not offer may find this limiting.
  • Limited Advanced Features
    Certbot focuses on providing basic SSL certificates. It may lack advanced features or customization options that are available from commercial certificate authorities.

Nginx Proxy Manager features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Nginx Proxy Manager comes with an intuitive, easy-to-use graphical interface that simplifies the setup and management of proxies.
  • Free and Open Source
    It is free to use and is open-source software, allowing for community contributions and customizable features.
  • SSL Certificate Management
    The platform allows for straightforward management of SSL certificates, including automatic renewal with Let's Encrypt.
  • Docker Integration
    Nginx Proxy Manager is available as a Docker container, making it easy to integrate into various environments and simplifying deployment.
  • Multi-Host Support
    Easily configure multiple hosts and services through the management interface, which is useful for managing a large number of services.
  • Access Control
    It provides customizable access lists and HTTP Basic Authentication to secure your services.

Possible disadvantages of Nginx Proxy Manager

  • Limited Advanced Features
    While suitable for most basic proxy needs, Nginx Proxy Manager lacks some advanced features and customizability that power users might require.
  • Performance Overhead
    Running the platform through Docker can introduce a minor performance overhead compared to a native Nginx setup.
  • Community Support
    Community-driven support might not be as robust or timely as professional, enterprise-level support services.
  • Dependency on Docker
    Requires Docker to run, which may not be ideal for all environments or fit into existing infrastructure without adjustments.
  • Resource Consumption
    Running the web interface alongside Nginx can incrementally increase resource consumption, especially in resource-constrained environments.

Certbot videos

How To Get FREE HTTPS in 10 Minutes with Let's Encrypt and Certbot

More videos:

  • Review - Free TLS In The Cloud With Certbot & Let's Encrypt

Nginx Proxy Manager videos

Nginx Proxy Manager Overview/Review

More videos:

  • Review - Nginx Proxy Manager - How-To Installation and Configuration
  • Review - NginX Proxy Manager is a free, open source, GUI for the NginX Reverse Proxy making it easy to use.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Certbot and Nginx Proxy Manager)
Web Servers
54 54%
46% 46
Load Balancers
0 0%
100% 100
Software Development
100 100%
0% 0
Security & Privacy
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Nginx Proxy Manager should be more popular than Certbot. It has been mentiond 293 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Certbot mentions (113)

  • How to Set Up a Subdomain with Nginx and SSL on DigitalOcean
    I've always been passionate about contributing to the tech community, and this article is my way of sharing what I've learned. Before diving in, it's beneficial to have a basic understanding of deploying to a DigitalOcean droplet, whether through a CI/CD pipeline or manually uploading your JAR files and running the app on the server. In this guide, I’ll walk you through setting up Nginx, and Certbot, and securing... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • My Journey Deploying an API: From Novice to Docker Enthusiast
    This felt like the ultimate test. I discovered Certbot, an open-source tool for setting up Let's Encrypt certificates, and dived into its documentation. After configuring Certbot, the application crashed entirely. My first thought was to wait 24 hours for the DNS to propagate, but the next day, the domain was still unresponsive. Debugging this issue without GUI tools was grueling. Docker logs were empty, PM2... - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Setting up Ruby on Rails with RVM, Puma, Mina, Nginx, Sidekiq and Redis on Amazon Linux 2
    If you need to setup SSL for your project I highly recommend to use Lets Encrypt and Certbot to basically do all the work for you. (Love those guys, when I go billionaire I will send some churros, promise). - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • How to deploy a static website to DigitalOcean
    This guide describes how to deploy a static website to a $4 Droplet at DigitalOcean. We will be using Nginx to serve our website and Certbot to manage TLS certificates issued by Let's Encrypt. Finally, we setup GitHub Actions to automate the deployment of the website. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • How To Secure Apache with Let's Encrypt
    Certbot is a command-line tool that simplifies the process of obtaining SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt. Certbot automatically configures Apache with the new SSL certificate. Install Certbot by running the following commands:. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
View more

Nginx Proxy Manager mentions (293)

  • Adventures in Homelabbing: From Cloud Obsession to Self-Hosted Shenanigans
    I began to self-host a Minecraft server using Crafty Controller, an Excalidraw instance, Docmost to replace Notion, Plane to replace Jira, and Penpot to replace Figma. To be able to access them from the internet, I used Nginx Proxy Manager to set up reverse proxies with SSL. You can use Traefik or Caddy instead, but I enjoyed the ease-of-use of NPM. For a dashboard solution, I started with Homarr, but later... - Source: dev.to / 22 days ago
  • Pihole v6
    Pi-hole is a killer application and I've loved it since I got it setup. One other app I highly recommend to run on your Pi in addition to Pi-hole is Nginx Proxy Manager[1]. [1]: https://nginxproxymanager.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • A story on home server security
    If anyone is looking for one, https://nginxproxymanager.com/ Been using it for years and it’s been solid. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Blackcandy: Self hosted music streaming server
    Most people will use nginx-proxy [0] or Traefik [1] for front ending home labs with LetsEncrypt certs... Beyond that people will protect them with things like Tailscale [2], Cloudflare Tunnels [3] or even just mTLS [4] for protected access. Home labbing today has a lot of amazing software and it's hard to keep up! And as for dashboarding [5] on top of all this there are a lot of options. [0]... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Can I put multiple services on one web domain using subdomains?
    Take a look at NginxProxyManager. This would give you the opportunity to put everything in the form of service1.domain.com , service2.domain.com ,etc. Source: over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Certbot and Nginx Proxy Manager, you can also consider the following products

Let's Encrypt - Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority brought to you by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG).

Traefik - Load Balancer / Reverse Proxy

Caddy - The HTTP/2 Web Server with Automatic HTTPS

nginx - A high performance free open source web server powering busiest sites on the Internet.

Digicert - Encryption & Authentication

Haproxy - Reliable, High Performance TCP/HTTP Load Balancer