NGINX vs Apache Tomcat vs Unicorn

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NGINX

113.7K
61.2K
+ 1
5.5K
Apache Tomcat

16.7K
12.4K
+ 1
201
Unicorn

494
399
+ 1
295

Apache Tomcat vs Unicorn vs nginx: What are the differences?

# Apache Tomcat vs Unicorn and Nginx: Key Differences

Apache Tomcat, Unicorn, and Nginx are popular web servers and application servers used in web development. Understanding their key differences can help developers choose the right tool for their projects.

1. **Architecture**: Apache Tomcat is a Java-based application server primarily used to host Java Servlets and JavaServer Pages (JSP), while Unicorn is a Ruby web server that supports Rack applications. Nginx, on the other hand, is a lightweight web server known for its high performance and scalability.

2. **Support for Languages**: Apache Tomcat is specialized for Java-based applications, while Unicorn is tailored for Ruby applications. Nginx, however, supports a wider range of programming languages and can be used as a reverse proxy server for various applications.

3. **Resource Usage**: Apache Tomcat tends to consume more system resources due to its Java-based architecture, while Unicorn and Nginx are known for their efficiency and low resource consumption. This makes Unicorn and Nginx ideal choices for high-traffic websites or applications.

4. **Load Balancing**: Nginx is well-known for its advanced load balancing capabilities, making it a preferred choice for distributing incoming traffic across multiple servers. Apache Tomcat and Unicorn also support load balancing, but Nginx offers more sophisticated features in this area.

5. **Configuration**: Apache Tomcat has a more complex configuration process compared to Unicorn and Nginx, which have simpler and more intuitive configuration settings. Nginx, in particular, has a reputation for its easy configuration syntax and flexibility in setting up server blocks.

6. **Community and Support**: Apache Tomcat has a large and active community support due to its popularity among Java developers. Unicorn and Nginx also have dedicated communities, but Apache Tomcat stands out for its extensive documentation and resources available online.

In Summary, Apache Tomcat, Unicorn, and Nginx differ in terms of architecture, language support, resource usage, load balancing capabilities, configuration complexity, and community support, making them suitable for different types of web development projects.
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Pros of NGINX
Pros of Apache Tomcat
Pros of Unicorn
  • 1.4K
    High-performance http server
  • 894
    Performance
  • 730
    Easy to configure
  • 607
    Open source
  • 530
    Load balancer
  • 289
    Free
  • 288
    Scalability
  • 226
    Web server
  • 175
    Simplicity
  • 136
    Easy setup
  • 30
    Content caching
  • 21
    Web Accelerator
  • 15
    Capability
  • 14
    Fast
  • 12
    High-latency
  • 12
    Predictability
  • 8
    Reverse Proxy
  • 7
    Supports http/2
  • 7
    The best of them
  • 5
    Great Community
  • 5
    Lots of Modules
  • 5
    Enterprise version
  • 4
    High perfomance proxy server
  • 3
    Embedded Lua scripting
  • 3
    Streaming media delivery
  • 3
    Streaming media
  • 3
    Reversy Proxy
  • 2
    Blash
  • 2
    GRPC-Web
  • 2
    Lightweight
  • 2
    Fast and easy to set up
  • 2
    Slim
  • 2
    saltstack
  • 1
    Virtual hosting
  • 1
    Narrow focus. Easy to configure. Fast
  • 1
    Along with Redis Cache its the Most superior
  • 1
    Ingress controller
  • 79
    Easy
  • 72
    Java
  • 49
    Popular
  • 1
    Spring web
  • 81
    Fast
  • 59
    Performance
  • 36
    Web server
  • 30
    Very light
  • 30
    Open Source
  • 27
    Rack http server
  • 18
    Load balancing
  • 14
    Great process management

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Cons of NGINX
Cons of Apache Tomcat
Cons of Unicorn
  • 10
    Advanced features require subscription
  • 3
    Blocking - each http request block a thread
  • 2
    Easy to set up
  • 4
    Not multithreaded

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What is NGINX?

nginx [engine x] is an HTTP and reverse proxy server, as well as a mail proxy server, written by Igor Sysoev. According to Netcraft nginx served or proxied 30.46% of the top million busiest sites in Jan 2018.

What is Apache Tomcat?

Apache Tomcat powers numerous large-scale, mission-critical web applications across a diverse range of industries and organizations.

What is Unicorn?

Unicorn is an HTTP server for Rack applications designed to only serve fast clients on low-latency, high-bandwidth connections and take advantage of features in Unix/Unix-like kernels. Slow clients should only be served by placing a reverse proxy capable of fully buffering both the the request and response in between Unicorn and slow clients.

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What tools integrate with NGINX?
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    What are some alternatives to NGINX, Apache Tomcat, and Unicorn?
    HAProxy
    HAProxy (High Availability Proxy) is a free, very fast and reliable solution offering high availability, load balancing, and proxying for TCP and HTTP-based applications.
    lighttpd
    lighttpd has a very low memory footprint compared to other webservers and takes care of cpu-load. Its advanced feature-set (FastCGI, CGI, Auth, Output-Compression, URL-Rewriting and many more) make lighttpd the perfect webserver-software for every server that suffers load problems.
    Traefik
    A modern HTTP reverse proxy and load balancer that makes deploying microservices easy. Traefik integrates with your existing infrastructure components and configures itself automatically and dynamically.
    Caddy
    Caddy 2 is a powerful, enterprise-ready, open source web server with automatic HTTPS written in Go.
    Envoy
    Originally built at Lyft, Envoy is a high performance C++ distributed proxy designed for single services and applications, as well as a communication bus and “universal data plane” designed for large microservice “service mesh” architectures.
    See all alternatives