NGINX

Windows · Mac · Linux · Self-hosted

Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.5

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely3 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

NGINX is ranked #6 of 33 in reverse proxy software on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Windows. There is a free plan.

NGINX plans and pricing

All plans

NGINX Open Source Free HTTP web server · reverse proxy · content cache · load balancer · TCP/UDP proxy · mail proxy nginx.org · 29 Sept 2026

Compared on reverse proxy software

Free plan: Yes
Deployment model: self-hosted
TLS termination: Yes
Web application firewall: No
Response caching: Yes
Configuration method: file
WebSocket support: Yes
Rate limiting: Yes

Best NGINX alternatives

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Two bars freenginx Free tier No. 1Free6.6 Two bars LocalXpose Free tier No. 2$8/mo6.6 Two bars ngrok Free tier No. 3$10/mo6.6 Two bars Pomerium Free tier No. 4$7/mo6.6 Two bars Envoy Proxy Free tier No. 5Free6.5 Two bars Roslynator Free tier No. 7Free6.5

The record

What it does: NGINX is an HTTP web server, reverse proxy, content cache, load balancer, TCP/UDP proxy server, and mail proxy server.
License: NGINX is distributed under the 2-clause BSD License.
Web protocols: Its listed HTTP features include SSL/TLS SNI, HTTP/2, and HTTP/3 support.
Traffic handling: It supports accelerated reverse proxying with caching, load balancing, and fault tolerance.
Application integrations: It supports caching and load balancing for FastCGI, uwsgi, SCGI, and memcached servers.
Scripting: The feature list includes the njs scripting language.
Process model: NGINX uses one master process and several worker processes, which run under an unprivileged user.
Downloads: The download page lists mainline, stable, and legacy versions, Windows builds, source code, and Linux packages.
Linux distributions: Official packages are listed for RHEL and derivatives, Debian, Ubuntu, SLES, Alpine, and Amazon Linux.
Package security: The Linux package instructions describe verifying packages with official signing keys and signatures.
Security advisories: The security page lists vulnerabilities, severity, affected versions, and versions that are not vulnerable.
Commercial support: F5 offers commercial support for NGINX through its Open Source Subscription Bundles.
Enterprise editions: F5 provides enterprise distributions of NGINX, including NGINX Plus.
Maintainer: F5, Inc. is identified as NGINX's primary maintainer, sponsor, and steward since its 2019 acquisition of NGINX, Inc.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Reverse Proxy Software in 2026#6 of 33

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Sources

nginx.org/en/· checked 29 Sept 2026
nginx.org/en/download.html· checked 29 Sept 2026
nginx.org/en/linux_packages.html· checked 29 Sept 2026
nginx.org/en/security_advisories.html· checked 29 Sept 2026
nginx.org/en/enterprise.html· checked 29 Sept 2026