• simple config & setup
• good performance
• popular/packaged by every single distro
• just works

HAproxy cannot serve static files directly. You need a webserver behind it for that.

Apache is slow.

Nginx is both a capable, fast reverse-proxy, and a capable, fast webserver. It can do everything HAproxy does, and what Apache does, and more.

I am not saying it is absolutely best for every use-case, but this flexibility is a large part of why I use it in my infra (nad have been using it for a decade).

Nginx “just works™” had never got into the way, its been rock solid and has not changed significantly over the years.

Why would I need something else?

Because Nginx Proxy Manager exists.

And also because for me it started from web hosting where Apache and Nginx dominate and later because of many easy to understand example configs from the net including many “docker letsencrypt” examples.

There’s a lot of good resources for Nginx, it’s fast (faster than Caddy), and has a ton of features, so you can use it for pretty much anything HAProxy, Apache, or Caddy can do, and not sacrifice much in performance.

That said, I mostly use HAProxy and Caddy. Here’s my basic setup:

1. HAProxy at the edge VPS - routes requests to machines based on SNI
2. WireGuard VPN - connects my internal devices to my VPS
3. Caddy in Docker - runs on internal network on my NAS/homelab - manages LetsEncrypt renewals and reverse proxies to internal Docker network
4. Nginx in Docker - FE for NextCloud; this simplifies things so all my TLS is handled in one place, and Caddy doesn’t need to touch files

I use a local DNS server on my router so my domains can route directly to Caddy instead of going over the internet when on my network, otherwise I may just have HAProxy handle LetsEncrypt certificates.

From what I can tell, Nginx is a little more efficient than Caddy, but Caddy is plenty fast for my needs. I’m considering switching from NextCloud to the new ownCloud Infinite Scale, and if I do, I’d ditch nginx completely.

Caddy certainly was the easier option but it’s as complex as nginx now and id argue it’s hard to to use.

It’s pretty good, innit?

Caddy’s developer gives me the ick. He’s way too pompous in PRs on GH. nginx is just a constant – it does exactly what you need to and does it well.

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

[Thread #888 for this sub, first seen 26th Jul 2024, 04:25] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

It just works and it’s in every distros default repo, it’s pretty easy to set up and can be a webserver for static files, PHP sites, etc… It can be a reverse proxy for HTTP(s) traffic or just forward TCP/UDP.

There’s also endless documentation out there for how to do something in nginx.

HAProxy is a nightmare to use in my experience. It just feels so clunky and old.

Caddy is nice, but downloading and updating it is a pain because you need modules that aren’t included in the repo version.

Some good answers in here already. It boils down to a couple points for me:

• Back when I started selfhosting, it was either nginx or apache, and I found nginx better and easier to set up
• All the nginx knowledge I learned years ago still works just the same as it did back then, so why potentially mess things up by switching if it all still works
• Basically every project has an example nginx config for reference, that can’t be said about other proxies
• It is easier to find support online for edge cases that might pop up with nginx due to the ubiquity of its use and years of history