Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

nginx VS Azure Application Gateway

Compare nginx VS Azure Application Gateway and see what are their differences

nginx logo nginx

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

Azure Application Gateway logo Azure Application Gateway

Manage traffic to your web applications using Azure Application Gateway, a load balancer that features a web application firewall and intelligent layer 7 routing.
  • nginx Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-28
  • Azure Application Gateway Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-05

nginx features and specs

  • High Performance
    Nginx is known for its ability to handle a large number of concurrent connections, which makes it an excellent choice for high-traffic websites.
  • Efficiency
    Nginx uses an event-driven architecture that can handle many connections in a single thread, making it resource-efficient.
  • Versatility
    Besides being a web server, Nginx can also function as a reverse proxy, load balancer, and HTTP cache, among other roles.
  • Security
    Nginx has robust security features including SSL/TLS support, which helps in protecting data transmitted between servers and clients.
  • Ease of Configuration
    Nginx's configuration syntax is considered straightforward and easier to understand compared to some alternatives like Apache.
  • Scalability
    Nginx can easily scale out by using multiple servers or CPUs, making it suitable for growing applications.
  • Low Memory Usage
    Its architecture allows for low-memory usage, which is beneficial for systems with limited resources.
  • Support for Multiple Protocols
    Nginx supports a variety of protocols, including HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP, POP3, and IMAP.

Possible disadvantages of nginx

  • Learning Curve
    The configuration syntax, while considered simple by many, can still present a steep learning curve for beginners.
  • Less Mature Ecosystem
    Compared to Apache, Nginx has fewer modules available, which can limit functionality for some specific use cases.
  • Less .htaccess Support
    Nginx does not support .htaccess files, which might be an inconvenience for users migrating from Apache who rely on this feature.
  • Error Logging
    Nginx's error logging is sometimes considered less user-friendly, making debugging and issue resolution more challenging.
  • Community Support
    While the community is growing, Nginx's user support community is still not as extensive as that of Apache.
  • Module Management
    Adding or removing modules in Nginx often requires recompiling the software, which can be inconvenient.

Azure Application Gateway features and specs

  • Scalability
    Azure Application Gateway can automatically scale up or down based on traffic demands, ensuring application availability and performance without manual intervention.
  • Security Features
    It offers a Web Application Firewall (WAF) that helps protect your applications from common vulnerabilities and attacks, improving the overall security posture.
  • SSL Termination
    By offloading SSL termination to the application gateway, it reduces the web server's computation load, allowing better resource allocation.
  • URL-based Routing
    Supports URL-based routing which allows for more advanced traffic distribution strategies and optimization of backend resources.
  • Multi-Region Redundancy
    Supports configurations for multi-region redundancy, allowing for improved resilience and availability across geographical locations.

Possible disadvantages of Azure Application Gateway

  • Complexity
    Initial setup and configuration can be complex, especially for users who are not familiar with Azure services, potentially leading to increased deployment times.
  • Cost
    Costs can increase significantly with higher traffic volumes and additional features like the Web Application Firewall, impacting the overall IT budget.
  • Latency
    There might be additional latency introduced due to the routing and processing of requests through the gateway, which can affect application performance.
  • Limited Customization
    Compared to some other solutions, Azure Application Gateway offers limited customization options for specific routing and traffic management scenarios.
  • Dependency on Azure Region
    Performance and availability can be impacted by the Azure region where the application gateway is deployed, leading to potential issues if that region experiences problems.

nginx videos

Nginx vs Apache Webservers: Main Differences

More videos:

  • Review - Nginx Web Hosting - 5 Best Nginx Reverse Proxy That Support Millions of Web Traffic!
  • Review - NGINX as a Reverse Proxy (listening on port 80)

Azure Application Gateway videos

Azure Application Gateways

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to nginx and Azure Application Gateway)
Web And Application Servers
Web Servers
89 89%
11% 11
Application Server
100 100%
0% 0
Load Balancer / Reverse Proxy

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare nginx and Azure Application Gateway

nginx Reviews

Top 5 Open Source Load Balancers in 2024
While NGINX is renowned for its prowess as a web server, its load balancing capabilities are equally commendable. NGINX, also known as "engine x," stands as a multifaceted powerhouse, excelling as an HTTP and reverse proxy server, mail proxy server, and a generic TCP/UDP proxy server. Originally crafted by Igor Sysoev, NGINX has a storied history, having long powered...
13 Best XAMPP Alternatives
Nginx is an open-source, high-performance web server used by tech companies, including Pinterest, Airbnb, Cloudflare, and Zendesk. It has been called the new Apache for its ability to scale more efficiently than other web servers, and many developers prefer it because it’s easy to deploy. Nginx also integrates with many programming languages via FastCGI.
Source: thetechtian.com
7 Best Containerization Software Solutions of 2022
If your enterprise is undergoing digital transformation, the NGINX application platform can help you modernize your legacy applications and deliver new microservices‑based applications – with performance, reliability, security, and scale.
Source: techgumb.com
Apache, IIS, NGINX, GWS : What’s Your Choice?
Utilizing a specific type of virtual or physical server determines the type of web server software you use. If you prefer Microsoft, then you will prefer to use IIS (Internet Information Services / Server) by Microsoft as your primary web server application solution. If you use Linux distribution, you have other alternatives like Apache, NGINX and LiteSpeed.
Source: www.milesweb.in
10 Awesome Open Source Load Balancers
Nginx is a battle-tested piece of software written in C and initially introduced in 2004. Since then, it has grown to be an all-in-one reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy, and HTTP cache. It offers L7 load balancing support for HTTP, HTTPS, FastCGI, uWSGI, SCGI, Memcached, and gRPC backends. Nginx’s process worker model is highly scalable and deployed at large scales in...

Azure Application Gateway Reviews

We have no reviews of Azure Application Gateway yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, nginx seems to be a lot more popular than Azure Application Gateway. While we know about 60 links to nginx, we've tracked only 1 mention of Azure Application Gateway. 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 mentions (60)

  • Deploying a Simple Flask API Using Gunicorn, Supervisor & Nginx
    Nginx: A reverse proxy to handle client requests and route them to Gunicorn. - Source: dev.to / 5 days ago
  • Setup K8s cluster on GCP VMs
    Welcome to nginx! If you see this page, the nginx web server is successfully installed and Working. Further configuration is required. For online documentation and support please refer to href="http://nginx.org/">nginx.org. Commercial support is available at href="http://nginx.com/">nginx.com. Thank you for using nginx. - Source: dev.to / 7 days ago
  • 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
  • Nginx vs Traefik: Which Reverse Proxy is Right for You?
    Before diving into the specifics of Nginx and Traefik, let’s quickly define what a reverse proxy is. A reverse proxy sits between the client (browser or other services) and your backend services (web servers or applications). It handles incoming requests, routes them to the appropriate backend service, and forwards the response to the client. Reverse proxies are typically used for:. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Dev.to on your own domain xyz.com.
    One of the most popular reverse proxies is nginx. Let's see how we can use it as I did in the video at the top. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
View more

Azure Application Gateway mentions (1)

  • Free and Built-In TLS/SSL certificates in Azure
    It should be easy and free to enable SSL/TSL certificates in Azure. This was the number one question on UserVoice feedback. Microsoft implemented this Built-In free certificate option for some services, like Azure CDN, Front Door, Application Gateway, etc. When you put one of those services in front of your web site (like what I did with this blog), you can enable an auto-renewable Built-In certificate for free. - Source: dev.to / about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing nginx and Azure Application Gateway, you can also consider the following products

Apache Tomcat - An open source software implementation of the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies

Google Cloud Load Balancing - Google Cloud Load Balancer enables users to scale their applications on Google Compute Engine.

Apache HTTP Server - Apache httpd has been the most popular web server on the Internet since April 1996

AWS Elastic Load Balancing - Amazon ELB automatically distributes incoming application traffic across multiple Amazon EC2 instances in the cloud.

Traefik - Load Balancer / Reverse Proxy

Oracle WebLogic - Receive a complimentary technical review and consultation on moving your Oracle WebLogic Server applications into containers.