Nginx

Apache is like Microsoft Word, it has a million options but you only need six. Nginx does those six things, and it does five of them 50 times faster than Apache.

Chris Lea, CTO of Fahlo

Nginx (pronounced “Engine-Ex”) is an open source HTTP web server and reverse proxy server. Run by the busiest web sites on the internet, Nginx enables high performance web architectures to improve user experience, without incurring unnecessary costs in capital or time

What Nginx Can Do for You

Nginx can operate as a reverse proxy server for HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP, POP3, and IMAP protocols. It can also be used as a load balancer and HTTP cache server. Nginx runs on BSD variants, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, and other *nix flavors, with a proof of concept port developed for Microsoft Windows.

Developers can deploy Nginx to serve dynamic HTTP content on the network with FastCGI, SCGI handlers for scripts, and WSGI application servers or a Phusion Passenger module. Rather than using a model that defaults to a threaded or process-oriented approach, Nginx utilizes an asynchronous event-driven approach to handling requests, an approach that provides more predictable performance under high loads because of its modular event-driven architecture.

Nginx Is Amazingly Popular

Nginx has surpassed Microsoft’s IIS to become the second most popular web server in the world behind Apache; in fact, Nginx is arguably first, since it is now the most used web server of the top 1000 sites on the web. Currently, Nginx powers such popular websites as Pinterest, WordPress, Netflix, and Hulu.

Nginx: HTTP Proxy and Web Server Features

Nginx: Mail Proxy Features

Other features include upgrading executable and configuration without client connections loss, and a module-based architecture.

You can read more about Nginx and its features at the company’s official website.