Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Nginx Proxy Manager VS acme.sh

Compare Nginx Proxy Manager VS acme.sh and see what are their differences

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

acme.sh logo acme.sh

A pure Unix shell script implementing ACME client protocol and deploying SSL certificates.
  • Nginx Proxy Manager Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-06-17
  • acme.sh Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-24

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.

acme.sh features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    acme.sh is simple to install and use because it is written in shell script. It does not require any external dependencies, which makes it lightweight and easy to set up.
  • Wide Platform Support
    The script is compatible with multiple operating systems, including Linux, macOS, and Windows (via WSL), which makes it versatile for different environments.
  • Supports Various DNS Providers
    acme.sh supports many DNS APIs out of the box, allowing users to automate DNS challenges with their preferred provider easily.
  • Automatic Renewal
    acme.sh can automatically renew certificates and deploy them, ensuring uninterrupted HTTPS service without manual intervention.
  • Customizable and Extendable
    Because it is a simple script, users can easily customize and extend its functionality to suit their specific needs.
  • No Root Necessary
    acme.sh does not require root access for installation and operation, improving security since it can be run without elevated privileges.

Possible disadvantages of acme.sh

  • Limited GUI
    Since acme.sh is a command-line tool, those accustomed to graphical interfaces might find it less intuitive to manage, compared to web-based interfaces.
  • Learning Curve
    Though it is easy to use for those familiar with the command line, users new to the terminal may face a learning curve when first using acme.sh.
  • Community Support
    While there is a community that supports acme.sh, the support might not be as extensive or swift as commercial solutions, potentially leading to delays in troubleshooting.
  • Misconfiguration Risks
    Because the installation and configuration are done manually, there is a risk of errors or misconfiguration, especially for users unfamiliar with SSL/TLS certificates.

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.

acme.sh videos

Free SSL Let's Encrypt - Acme.sh - Wordpress - Openlitespeed

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Nginx Proxy Manager and acme.sh)
Load Balancers
100 100%
0% 0
Security & Privacy
0 0%
100% 100
Web Servers
80 80%
20% 20
Software Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Nginx Proxy Manager and acme.sh. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Nginx Proxy Manager should be more popular than acme.sh. 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.

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 / about 2 months 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 / 4 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 / 5 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 / 5 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

acme.sh mentions (41)

  • I no longer have an old-school cert on my HTTPS site
    I was amazed by them having so much distrust of the various clients. Certbot is typically in the repositories for things like Debian/Ubuntu. My favourite client is probably https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh If you use a DNS service provider that supports it, you can use the DNS-01 challenge to get a certificate - that means that you can have the... - Source: Hacker News / 16 days ago
  • Bunster: Compile bash scripts to self contained executables
    Thank you for using the project! On the concern of it would be harder to setup, I think it would be easier in fact, you would simply curl the Go or C statically generated binary to your path and would alleviate the need for jq or curl to be installed alongside. I think the reason I haven’t made the switch yet is I like Bash (even though my script is getting pretty big), and in a way it’s a testament to what’s... - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Just want simple TLS for your .internal network?
    I use Dynu.com as my DNS provider (they're cheap, provide APIs and very fast to update which is great for home IP addresses that may change). Then, to get the certificates, I use https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh which is a shell script. Copying the certificates to the relevant machines is done by a BASH script that runs the relevant acme.sh commands. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Setting up a Homelab: Part 1 Proxmox and LetsEncrypt
    A self-signed certificate was generated and used by Proxmox which will always generate a warning on the browser. I did not like seeing this when trying to work on my home lab. So, I started looking for ways to put a valid SSL certificate in Proxmox. During my research, I found that Proxmox could be made to integrate with acme.sh; a free SSL certificate generator powered by ACME(Let's Encrypt). - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Dehydrated: Letsencrypt/acme client implemented as a shell-script
    Dehydrated and acme.sh seems different. Is one of them fork? https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Nginx Proxy Manager and acme.sh, you can also consider the following products

Traefik - Load Balancer / Reverse Proxy

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

Caddy - The HTTP/2 Web Server with Automatic HTTPS

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

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

Haproxy - Reliable, High Performance TCP/HTTP Load Balancer