Apache vs Nginx: Choosing the Right Webserver

Choosing between Apache and Nginx is one of the most important architectural decisions for web infrastructure. Both are powerful, mature web servers, but they excel in different scenarios. This comprehensive comparison explores their architectures, performance characteristics, and use cases to help you make the right choice.

Web server infrastructure — Modern web server architecture

Architectural Differences

The fundamental difference lies in how each server handles connections^[1].

Apache’s Process-Based Model

Apache uses a process or thread-per-connection model:

Request 1 → Process/Thread 1
Request 2 → Process/Thread 2
Request 3 → Process/Thread 3

Multi-Processing Modules (MPMs):

Prefork MPM: One process per connection (memory-intensive)
Worker MPM: Multiple threads per process (better efficiency)
Event MPM: Non-blocking, similar to Nginx (Apache 2.4+)

Nginx’s Event-Driven Model

Nginx uses an asynchronous event-driven architecture:

Master Process
  └── Worker Process (handles thousands of connections)
        ├── Event Loop
        ├── Non-blocking I/O
        └── Async request handling

Feature	Apache	Nginx
Architecture	Process/Thread-based	Event-driven
Memory per connection	~1-4 MB	~2-4 KB
Concurrent connections	Thousands	Tens of thousands
Static content	Good	Excellent
Dynamic content	Excellent (mod_php)	Good (via proxy)
Configuration	.htaccess (distributed)	Central nginx.conf

Performance Comparison

Static Content Serving

Nginx excels at serving static files:

# Nginx configuration
server {
    location / {
        root /var/www/html;
        expires 1y;
        add_header Cache-Control "public";
    }
}

Benchmarks (10,000 requests, 100 concurrent):

Nginx: ~12,000 req/s, 8MB RAM
Apache: ~4,000 req/s, 45MB RAM

Dynamic Content Processing

Apache with mod_php has lower latency for PHP:

## Apache configuration
<VirtualHost *:80>
    <FilesMatch \.php$>
        SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
    </FilesMatch>
</VirtualHost>

PHP Request Flow:

Apache: Request → mod_php (in-process) → Response
Nginx: Request → FastCGI/PHP-FPM (separate process) → Response

Server performance monitoring — Web server performance comparison

Configuration Flexibility

Apache’s .htaccess

Apache allows per-directory configuration via .htaccess files:

## .htaccess in /var/www/html/admin/
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Admin Area"
AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/.htpasswd
Require valid-user

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^old-page\.html$ /new-page.html [R=301,L]

Pros:

Decentralized configuration
No server restart needed
Easy for shared hosting

Cons:

Performance overhead (checked for every request)
Security risk if users have write access

Nginx’s Centralized Configuration

Nginx requires restart/reload for configuration changes:

location /admin/ {
    auth_basic "Admin Area";
    auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/.htpasswd;
}

location = /old-page.html {
    return 301 /new-page.html;
}

Pros:

Faster (configuration parsed once)
Centralized control
Better security

Cons:

Requires reload for changes
Not suitable for shared hosting

Module Ecosystems

Apache Modules

Over 500 modules available:

## Enable Apache modules
a2enmod rewrite
a2enmod ssl
a2enmod headers
a2enmod php8.2

## Popular modules
- mod_rewrite: URL rewriting
- mod_ssl: HTTPS support
- mod_security: WAF
- mod_proxy: Reverse proxy
- mod_php: PHP integration

Nginx Modules

Fewer but high-quality modules:

## Nginx modules (compile-time)
./configure   --with-http_ssl_module   --with-http_v2_module   --with-http_realip_module   --with-http_gzip_static_module

## Popular modules
- ngx_http_proxy_module: Reverse proxy
- ngx_http_fastcgi_module: FastCGI support
- ngx_http_ssl_module: HTTPS
- ngx_http_gzip_module: Compression

Use Cases and Recommendations

Choose Apache When:

Shared hosting environment (.htaccess support)
Heavy use of .htaccess files
Extensive mod_rewrite rules already in place
Need specific Apache modules not available in Nginx
Team familiar with Apache configuration

Example: WordPress shared hosting

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com
    
    <Directory /var/www/example.com>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
    
    <IfModule mod_php8.c>
        php_value upload_max_filesize 64M
        php_value post_max_size 64M
    </IfModule>
</VirtualHost>

Choose Nginx When:

High concurrency requirements
Static content heavy sites
Reverse proxy/load balancer needed
Microservices architecture
Resource constraints (limited RAM)

Example: Microservices API gateway

upstream auth_service {
    server 10.0.1.10:8080;
    server 10.0.1.11:8080;
}

upstream api_service {
    server 10.0.2.10:8080;
    server 10.0.2.11:8080;
}

server {
    location /api/auth/ {
        proxy_pass http://auth_service;
    }
    
    location /api/ {
        proxy_pass http://api_service;
    }
}

Hybrid Approach

Many high-traffic sites use both:

Internet → Nginx (reverse proxy, static content)
              ↓
          Apache (dynamic content, complex logic)

Configuration:

## Nginx frontend
server {
    listen 80;
    
    # Serve static files directly
    location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|gif|css|png|js|ico|html)$ {
        root /var/www/static;
        expires 30d;
    }
    
    # Proxy dynamic content to Apache
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }
}

## Apache backend (listening on 127.0.0.1:8080)
<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:8080>
    ServerName example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/dynamic
    
    <Directory /var/www/dynamic>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Migration Strategies

Apache to Nginx Migration

## 1. Install Nginx alongside Apache
apt-get install nginx

## 2. Configure Apache on different port
## /etc/apache2/ports.conf
Listen 8080

## 3. Configure Nginx as frontend
## Test extensively before switching

## 4. Update DNS to point to Nginx
## Monitor carefully

## 5. Gradually remove Apache if not needed

Configuration Translation

Apache rewrite rule:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^/old-url$ /new-url [R=301,L]

Nginx equivalent:

rewrite ^/old-url$ /new-url permanent;
## or
location = /old-url {
    return 301 /new-url;
}

Performance Tuning

Apache Optimization

## /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

## For Event MPM
<IfModule mpm_event_module>
    StartServers 2
    MinSpareThreads 25
    MaxSpareThreads 75
    ThreadLimit 64
    ThreadsPerChild 25
    MaxRequestWorkers 150
    MaxConnectionsPerChild 0
</IfModule>

## Enable caching
<IfModule mod_cache.c>
    CacheEnable disk /
    CacheRoot /var/cache/apache2/mod_cache_disk
</IfModule>

## Compression
<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml text/css
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
</IfModule>

Nginx Optimization

worker_processes auto;
worker_rlimit_nofile 65535;

events {
    worker_connections 4096;
    use epoll;
}

http {
    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay on;
    
    keepalive_timeout 65;
    keepalive_requests 100;
    
    gzip on;
    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_comp_level 6;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript;
}

Conclusion

Neither Apache nor Nginx is universally “better” - the right choice depends on your specific requirements:

Apache is ideal for:

Shared hosting
Complex .htaccess usage
PHP-heavy applications
Teams familiar with Apache

Nginx is ideal for:

High concurrency
Static content
Reverse proxy/load balancing
Resource-constrained environments

Best of both:

Use Nginx as frontend for static content and load balancing
Use Apache backend for complex dynamic content processing

Many modern deployments use Nginx for 80% of tasks while maintaining Apache for specific legacy or complex requirements. The hybrid approach offers the best of both worlds.

References

[1] Reese, W. (2008). Nginx: the high-performance web server and reverse proxy. Linux Journal. Available at: https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/10108 (Accessed: November 2025)

[2] Apache Software Foundation. (2024). Apache HTTP Server Documentation. Available at: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/ (Accessed: November 2025)