Igor Sysoev created NGINX, which was first released to the public in October 2004. C10k is a performance problem related to handling 10,000 concurrent connections, which is what inspired Igor to create the software. In this article we are going to check what is NGINX, How NGINX Improves Your Site Performance, Difference between NGINX, OpenLiteSpeed and Apache Webservers.
In benchmark tests with static content and/or high concurrent requests, NGINX often outperforms other popular web servers due to its roots in performance optimization under scale
Its key features include:
- Reverse proxy support
- Load balancing on HTTP, TCP, and UDP protocols (in particular, UDP load balancing has been introduced with NGINX 1.7.0)
- HTTP caching and acceleration
- FastCGI support (with php-fpm or Python)
- Support of virtual hosting on various levels (name based or IP based) and proxying requests to different backend servers according to the requested host name or IP address (server names can contain regular expressions); also it is possible to use different configurations for different hosts as well as use one configuration per one host; it is also possible to have multiple server blocks listening on the same port but with different addresses (also using regular expressions) — it makes easier the move from Apache where you usually have only one configuration file per IP/port combination;
How NGINX Improves Your Site Performance
- Load content faster for visitors
- Handle more traffic with less hardware and resources
- Perform better under heavy loads, such as during peak shopping seasons or when a new product line is released
- Serve up site pages with fewer errors, downtime and frustration for users
NGINX vs Apache Performance Difference:
So how does all of this translate into the real world?
If you have a lot of static content that changes infrequently, such as images and movies, NGINX is likely to be more efficient than Apache. When your site has hundreds or thousands of users making simultaneous requests for content then NGINX will probably handle that better than Apache. If you have a lot of dynamic content which changes frequently and you need to serve it quickly, Apache might be the better option. If you need to use .htaccess files or allow .htpasswd files, then Apache will certainly fit the bill as NGINX does not natively support these features.
You can learn more about Apache vs NGINX in terms of their performance and features difference.
Apache is also easier to configure if you are just starting out with setting up a web server for your website. It can also be extended in ways that NGINX cannot due to its underlying design principles (such as adding Perl modules). Also, if your hosting provider usually provides an easy way to change between PHP versions via cPanel, they’ll almost always offer PHP as an Apache module rather than running it independently with FastCGI/PHP-FPM (the way NGINX requires).
However NGINX is now being offered by many hosting companies and even popular control panels like Plesk also implements and offers NGINX.
Does NGINX Work With WordPress?
You may be surprised to learn that yes, NGINX does work hand-in-hand with WordPress. In fact, it’s one of the best ways you can get a performance boost out of your WordPress site. Because of its light weight it can even be used alongside Apache (in reverse proxy mode) while giving WordPress users the ability to add additional features such as caching.
The creators of the world’s most popular content management system (CMS) know what they’re doing when it comes to serving their own site, and they use NGINX on all their servers – including WordPress.com VIP hosting which offers automated scaling for enterprise sites using NGINX.
NGINX can help you balance performance and cost.
NGINX can help you with this, as it is a free open-source web server that can be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy and HTTP cache. This webserver was designed for high performance, low resource consumption and is known for its stability of operation. NGINX uses an asynchronous event-driven approach to handling requests and has the ability to perform very efficiently under high loads while using comparatively little memory.
With the cost of hosting your website increasing due to demand, having a fast performing website is also important in reducing your hosting costs. Because you are able to have more users on less servers.
NGINX vs OpenLiteSpeed:
OpenLiteSpeed is another web server created by LiteSpeed and it is pretty new to market. However it turns out that OpenLiteSpeed might outperform NGINX in terms of speed in regards to WordPress due to its caching capabilities out of the box.
OpenLiteSpeed also have basic support of .htaccess which normally NGINX does not have. You can also learn more about OpenLiteSpeed vs NGINX.
Conclusion
We’ve talked about NGINX (its creation), its features, how NGINX Improves Your Site Performance and its performance against various web server. In a final verdict you can say that NGINX is well worth the use because of its code design it is made to handle high amounts of traffic.
And now since NGINX is integrated into many popular control panels like cPanel (not officially), Plesk and DirectAdmin. And it is really easy to use and deploy NGINX. If you are looking to deploy OpenLiteSpeed you can use CyberPanel and CloudPages as it integrates OpenLiteSpeed and LiteSpeed Enterprise both.
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