What about Apache?

After learning about Nginx, you might ask whether Apache is still a good choice. Well, before Nginx, Apache was the most popular web server, which means that it’s still good.

Apache is a process-based web server, which means that each simultaneous connection requires a separate thread. The main reason for having a separate execution for each request is that this is the only way to avoid blocking when using synchronous I/O. As you may appreciate, the way Apache works is simple to implement and can easily serve websites without lots of traffic provided that your Linux machine has the right amount of memory and CPU power.

Apache uses .htaccess files and Nginx doesn’t support .htaccess files, so you’ll have to convert existing Apache .htaccess files into Nginx rules which looks like a lot of work. However, remember that you only have to do it once.

If you already using Apache as your web server of choice, then converting to Nginx might take some time but will be worth the effort especially when you are trying to avoid upgrading your Linux machines.