Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Payara Server VS nginx

Compare Payara Server VS nginx and see what are their differences

Payara Server logo Payara Server

Payara Server is a fully supported, developer-friendly, open source application server. Innovative, cloud-native, optimized for production deployments. Jakarta EE & MicroProfile compatible.

nginx logo nginx

A high performance free open source web server powering busiest sites on the Internet.
  • Payara Server Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-11-22

Payara Server is an open source, cloud-native middleware platform supporting reliable and secure deployments of Java EE (Jakarta EE) applications on premise, in the cloud or hybrid environments. Originally derived from GlassFish and used as a drop in replacement.

Monthly releases, bug fixes and a 10-year support lifecycle optimizes Payara Server for production deployments. Payara Server is aggressively compatible with common ecosystem components and ensures future compliance with Jakarta EE.

Payara Server is built and supported by a team of DevOps engineers dedicated to continued development and maintenance of the open source software, and committed to collaboration with the community to ensure Payara Server is the best option for production Java EE applications.

  • nginx Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-28

Payara Server features and specs

  • Open Source
    Payara Server is open source, which means it's free to use and has a community of developers contributing to its development and improvements.
  • Jakarta EE Support
    It supports Jakarta EE, offering developers access to a wide range of enterprise features and a robust platform for building scalable applications.
  • Payara Micro
    Payara Server offers Payara Micro, a lightweight version designed specifically for microservices architectures, making it agile and easily deployable in cloud environments.
  • Commercial Support
    For organizations requiring professional support, Payara Services Ltd offers a range of commercial support options, including 24/7 support and monitoring.
  • Cloud-Ready
    Payara Server is designed to be ready for cloud deployment, offering robust support for Docker, Kubernetes, and other cloud-native tools.

Possible disadvantages of Payara Server

  • Learning Curve
    For new users, there might be a steep learning curve in understanding Jakarta EE specifications and how Payara Server implements these functionalities.
  • Performance Overhead
    It can have higher overhead compared to more lightweight, specialized solutions, especially in cases where full Jakarta EE stack is not required.
  • Limited Niche Community
    While it is actively developed and supported, the community is smaller compared to other enterprise servers like WildFly or Apache Tomcat, potentially leading to fewer resources and community-driven extensions.
  • Version Compatibility
    Some users may face challenges with compatibility when migrating from other application servers, requiring code adjustments to comply with Payara Server's configurations.
  • High Support Costs
    While there's a free open-source version, the costs for commercial support can be high, which might be a consideration for smaller businesses.

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.

Payara Server videos

Payara Server Deployment Group on Docker

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How to Deploy an Application to Payara Server

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)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Payara Server and nginx)
Web And Application Servers
Application Server
27 27%
73% 73
Web Servers
8 8%
92% 92
Java
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

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

Payara Server Reviews

4 Open Source Application Servers (Comparison and Review)
The Payara Server was derived from GlassFish. It offers 24/7 production and developer support. This server is optimized for production and is secure by default. Payara has implemented its own enhancements and fixes, and has no association with Oracle. Plans are in place to address advanced database capabilities, enhanced diagnostics and more.
Source: shadow-soft.com

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...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, nginx seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 60 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.

Payara Server mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Payara Server yet. Tracking of Payara Server recommendations started around Mar 2021.

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
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Payara Server and nginx, you can also consider the following products

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

JBoss - JBoss is Red Hats Java EE 5-compliant (soon Java EE 6-compliant) application server.

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

Glassfish - GlassFish v3, built by the GlassFish community, is the first compatible implementation of the Java...

Traefik - Load Balancer / Reverse Proxy

Eclipse Jetty - Jetty is a highly scalable modular servlet engine and http server that natively supports many modern protocols like SPDY and WebSockets.