Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Unicorn VS Microsoft IIS

Compare Unicorn VS Microsoft IIS and see what are their differences

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Unicorn logo Unicorn

Unicorn is an HTTP server for Rack applications designed to only serve fast clients on low-latency, high-bandwidth connections.

Microsoft IIS logo Microsoft IIS

Internet Information Services is a web server for Microsoft Windows
  • Unicorn Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-12
  • Microsoft IIS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-25

Unicorn features and specs

  • Performance
    Unicorn is designed to handle multiple concurrent connections and efficiently manage resources, providing improved performance for Ruby applications.
  • Concurrency
    With its multi-process architecture, Unicorn can handle multiple client requests simultaneously, which is ideal for multi-threaded or concurrent applications.
  • Robust Process Management
    Unicorn automatically manages process worker pools and can gracefully handle worker crashes, leading to more robust and reliable server performance.
  • Compatibility
    Unicorn works seamlessly with Rack applications and is compliant with popular web server standards, making it easy to integrate with existing Ruby on Rails applications.
  • Simplicity
    Unicorn's straightforward design focuses on simplicity and minimalistic architecture, reducing the need for extensive configuration.

Possible disadvantages of Unicorn

  • Memory Usage
    Unicorn uses a multi-process model, which can lead to higher memory consumption compared to multi-threaded servers, potentially increasing costs on memory-bound systems.
  • Non-Windows Platform
    Unicorn is designed to work primarily on Unix-like systems. It is not natively supported on Windows, limiting its use in cross-platform environments.
  • Limited Scalability
    Unicorn does not easily scale across multiple machines. It is best suited for applications running on a single server, as scaling out horizontally requires external tools and configurations.
  • Blocking I/O
    Since Unicorn uses a preforking model with blocking I/O, it may not be suitable for applications that require non-blocking, event-driven I/O operations.
  • Graceful Restart
    While Unicorn supports zero-downtime deployments, managing graceful restarts can be complex and might require additional configuration and handling.

Microsoft IIS features and specs

  • Integration with Windows Server
    Since IIS is developed by Microsoft, it offers seamless integration with Windows Server, leveraging features like Active Directory, .NET Framework, and PowerShell for enhanced performance and manageability.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    IIS features a graphical user interface (GUI) that simplifies the server setup and management process, making it easier for administrators to configure and maintain web applications.
  • Extensive Documentation and Support
    Being a product from Microsoft, IIS offers comprehensive documentation, extensive online resources, and professional technical support, which can be highly beneficial for enterprise users.
  • Security Features
    IIS includes various built-in security features, such as dynamic IP restrictions, request filtering, application pooling, and integration with Windows authentication, making it a secure choice for hosting web applications.
  • Performance and Scalability
    IIS is optimized for performance and can effectively handle multiple requests and high-traffic websites. It also supports load balancing and server farms to enhance scalability.

Possible disadvantages of Microsoft IIS

  • Cost Considerations
    Unlike some other web servers that are open-source and free, IIS may incur licensing costs as it requires a Windows Server license, making it potentially expensive for small-scale deployments.
  • Platform Dependency
    IIS runs exclusively on the Windows platform, which can be a limitation for organizations that use a diverse set of operating systems or prefer open-source ecosystems like Linux.
  • Complex Configuration for Advanced Features
    While IIS offers a user-friendly interface for basic setups, configuring advanced features may require considerable expertise and can become complex, particularly for those unfamiliar with Microsoft's environment.
  • Performance Overheads
    IIS may introduce performance overhead due to the multiple layers of abstraction and integration with Windows features, which can affect performance in some high-demand scenarios compared to lightweight, minimalist web servers.
  • Lower Community Support
    Open-source web servers like Apache and Nginx have large, active communities that contribute to continuous improvement and troubleshooting. IIS, being a proprietary product, has a smaller community in comparison.

Unicorn videos

War Thunder: Tiger H1 Super Unicorn Review

More videos:

  • Review - War Thunder: OTOMATIC Super Unicorn Review
  • Review - M4A3 (76) HVSS Wannabe Unicorn Review

Microsoft IIS videos

Analyzing Microsoft IIS Web Logs - Part 1

More videos:

  • Review - My SEO Video 2017 Microsoft IIS SEO Toolkit

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Unicorn and Microsoft IIS)
Web And Application Servers
Application Server
24 24%
76% 76
Web Servers
18 18%
82% 82
Social Networks
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 Unicorn and Microsoft IIS

Unicorn Reviews

Unicorn vs. Puma vs. Passenger: which app server is right for you?
Puma and Passenger are equipped to handle slow clients. Unicorn cannot help with slow clients by itself: requests go directly to a worker process. Unicorn doesn't hide this. The Unicorn docs clearly state: "You should not allow unicorn to serve clients outside of your local network". However, you can get around by using Nginx as a reverse proxy and letting it buffer client...
Source: scoutapm.com

Microsoft IIS Reviews

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
What Is the Most Popular Web Server Application in 2021?
Despite being bundled with most modern Microsoft software, IIS loses out to Apache on its own devices. The main selling point here is performance. While IIS has kept up with Apache in recent times, Apache has historically been performing much better, which still gives it an edge over IIS.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Unicorn seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 1 time 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.

Unicorn mentions (1)

Microsoft IIS mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Microsoft IIS yet. Tracking of Microsoft IIS recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Unicorn and Microsoft IIS, you can also consider the following products

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

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

LiteSpeed Web Server - LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS) is a high-performance Apache drop-in replacement.

Phusion Passenger - Phusion Passenger is a multi-language (Ruby, Python, Node) web & app server which can integrate into Apache and Nginx

XAMPP - XAMPP is a free and open-source cross-platform web server that is primarily used when locally developing web applications.

Forge - Static web hosting made simple