Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

nginx VS Envoy Proxy

Compare nginx VS Envoy Proxy and see what are their differences

nginx logo nginx

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

Envoy Proxy logo Envoy Proxy

Envoy is an open source edge and service proxy, designed for cloud-native applications
  • nginx Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-28
  • Envoy Proxy Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-02-09

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.

Envoy Proxy features and specs

  • High Performance
    Envoy Proxy is designed for high-performance communication across microservices, offering efficient proxying, low latency, and support for high throughput.
  • Extensibility
    Envoy supports a wide range of filters and extensions that allow you to customize its behavior easily, accommodating diverse use cases.
  • Observability
    It provides comprehensive observability features, including distributed tracing, metrics, and logging, which help in monitoring and debugging traffic issues.
  • Service Discovery
    Envoy seamlessly integrates with service discovery systems, automatically adjusting to changes in the environment without requiring manual intervention.
  • Resilience
    Built-in resilience features like retries, circuit breakers, and timeout management enhance Envoy's robustness in unreliable network environments.
  • Protocol Agnostic
    Envoy supports various communication protocols, which helps in managing HTTP1, HTTP2, gRPC, TCP, and WebSockets in a single binary.

Possible disadvantages of Envoy Proxy

  • Complex Configuration
    The configuration files in Envoy can become complex and challenging to manage, which may require steep learning curves for new users.
  • Resource Intensive
    Envoy can be resource-intensive, especially when handling a high number of connections or processing large volumes of data.
  • Limited GUI Tools
    Compared to other solutions, Envoy lacks comprehensive graphical user interface tools for monitoring and configuration management.
  • Community and Ecosystem Maturity
    While Envoy has an active community, some organizations may find the maturity of its ecosystem lacking compared to longer-established options.
  • Version Compatibility
    Keeping Envoy and its dependencies up to date can be challenging, especially in environments with fast-paced development cycles.

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)

Envoy Proxy videos

Webinar: Using Envoy Proxy as Your Gateway to Service Mesh

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to nginx and Envoy Proxy)
Web And Application Servers
Web Servers
96 96%
4% 4
Application Server
100 100%
0% 0
Network & Admin
0 0%
100% 100

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 Envoy Proxy

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...

Envoy Proxy Reviews

We have no reviews of Envoy Proxy yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, nginx seems to be a lot more popular than Envoy Proxy. While we know about 60 links to nginx, we've tracked only 2 mentions of Envoy Proxy. 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 / 9 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 / 11 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

Envoy Proxy mentions (2)

  • gRPC vs REST: Comparing API Styles in Practice
    But what if we could make some changes to enable clients to interact with our gRPC API as though it were a REST service? Our service won't be RESTful since it will still be RPC under the covers, but we will get to access it via HTTP/1.1, URLs, and JSON. Thankfully, we can use an Envoy proxy server to easily accomplish this feat without having to write our own code manually! - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • SSL Termination before Postgres - is it possible?
    Have a look at Envoy (https://envoyproxy.io) and the Postgres filter (https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/v1.19.0/configuration/listeners/network_filters/postgres_proxy_filter) and StartTLS filter (see https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/v1.19.0/api-v3/extensions/filters/network/postgres_proxy/v3alpha/postgres_proxy.proto.html how to use it). Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing nginx and Envoy Proxy, you can also consider the following products

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

Haproxy - Reliable, High Performance TCP/HTTP Load Balancer

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

Traefik - Load Balancer / Reverse Proxy

gobetween - Modern & minimalistic load balancer and router for the Cloud era

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