Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Let's Encrypt VS Nginx Proxy Manager

Compare Let's Encrypt VS Nginx Proxy Manager and see what are their differences

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Let's Encrypt logo Let's Encrypt

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

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
  • Let's Encrypt Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-12
  • Nginx Proxy Manager Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-06-17

Let's Encrypt features and specs

  • Free of Charge
    Let's Encrypt provides SSL/TLS certificates at no cost, making it an economical choice for individuals and businesses.
  • Automated Certificate Issuance and Renewal
    The process of obtaining and renewing certificates can be automated using the ACME protocol, reducing manual intervention and administrative overhead.
  • Ease of Use
    Let's Encrypt simplifies the process of enabling HTTPS for websites, even for users with limited technical expertise.
  • Security
    Let's Encrypt certificates provide strong encryption, improving the security of data transmitted between clients and servers.
  • Widely Recognized
    Certificates issued by Let's Encrypt are trusted by all major web browsers and operating systems.
  • Promotes Secure Web Practices
    By making SSL/TLS certificates freely available, Let's Encrypt encourages more websites to adopt HTTPS, contributing to a more secure internet.

Possible disadvantages of Let's Encrypt

  • Short Duration of Certificates
    Let's Encrypt certificates are valid for only 90 days, requiring more frequent renewals compared to traditional certificate authorities.
  • Limited Support Options
    Let's Encrypt relies on community support and documentation, and does not offer dedicated customer support for troubleshooting and assistance.
  • No Extended Validation (EV) Certificates
    Let's Encrypt does not issue Extended Validation (EV) certificates, which provide additional verification and a higher level of trust for business websites.
  • Potential for Misuse
    Since certificates are issued for free and with minimal validation, there is a risk that cybercriminals might use them for phishing or other malicious activities.
  • No Wildcard Certificates for Multi-Level Subdomains
    While Let's Encrypt supports wildcard certificates for single-level subdomains, it doesn't support them for nested subdomains (e.g., *.sub.example.com).
  • Reliance on Third-Party Tools for Automation
    Users may need to rely on third-party tools or scripts for automation, which could introduce additional complexity or security risks.

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.

Let's Encrypt videos

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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 Let's Encrypt and Nginx Proxy Manager)
Security & Privacy
100 100%
0% 0
Load Balancers
0 0%
100% 100
Identity And Access Management
Web Servers
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Let's Encrypt might be a bit more popular than Nginx Proxy Manager. We know about 338 links to it since March 2021 and only 293 links to Nginx Proxy Manager. 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.

Let's Encrypt mentions (338)

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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 / 26 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 / 3 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 Let's Encrypt and Nginx Proxy Manager, you can also consider the following products

OpenSSL - OpenSSL is a free and open source software cryptography library that implements both the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols, which are primarily used to provide secure communications between web browsers and …

Traefik - Load Balancer / Reverse Proxy

Ensighten - Ensighten provides enterprise tag management solutions that enable businesses manage their websites more effectively.

Caddy - The HTTP/2 Web Server with Automatic HTTPS

AWS Certificate Manager - AWS Certificate Manager from Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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