Nginx vs Apache

Nginx and Apache HTTP Server are the two most widely deployed web servers in the world. Nginx uses an event-driven architecture optimized for high concurrency. Apache uses a process/thread model that trades raw performance for flexibility and ease of dynamic content handling.

Architecture: The Core Difference

Nginx — Event-Driven

Nginx uses a small number of worker processes, each handling thousands of connections via an event loop (epoll on Linux, kqueue on BSD). This non-blocking design is inherently efficient — a single Nginx worker can handle 10,000+ simultaneous connections with minimal memory overhead.

Apache — Process/Thread Per Connection

Apache offers multiple Multi-Processing Modules (MPMs). The traditional prefork MPM spawns a process per connection. The worker MPM uses threads. The modern event MPM is hybrid and handles keep-alive connections more efficiently, narrowing the gap with Nginx.

Static vs Dynamic Content

Nginx is significantly faster at serving static files (HTML, CSS, JS, images) because it reads files directly from disk and sends them to the client without spawning processes. For dynamic content (PHP, Python, Ruby), Nginx proxies to external application servers like PHP-FPM or Gunicorn.

Apache can embed language interpreters directly (mod_php, mod_perl), eliminating the proxy hop. This simplifies configuration for dynamic sites but increases memory usage since each Apache process loads the interpreter.

The .htaccess Factor

Apache's .htaccess files allow per-directory configuration without touching the main config. This is essential for shared hosting where users cannot access the server config. Nginx deliberately does not support .htaccess — all configuration lives in centralized files, which is faster (no per-request filesystem checks) but less flexible for multi-tenant environments.

Modern Recommendation

For new deployments, Nginx (or Nginx + application server) is the standard recommendation due to its superior performance and lower resource usage. Apache remains relevant for legacy workloads and shared hosting. Study web server architecture in our concepts and system design interview guide. Check interview questions and pricing.