Why Is Nginx the Most Popular Web Server?

Why Nginx Became the Most Popular Web Server

Before Nginx, Apache dominated the market, but Nginx’s superior performance and stability pushed Apache to second place.

Key Advantages of Nginx

Performance‑optimized , high efficiency, strong stability, and a mature codebase make Nginx stand out.

Adoption by Major Chinese Companies

Companies such as Baidu, JD.com, Tencent, NetEase, and Taobao rely on Nginx for their web services.

Core Functions

Nginx provides web services, load balancing (reverse proxy), and caching.

Request Processing Flow

Basic Architecture

Nginx uses a multi‑process model consisting of a master process and multiple worker processes.

Master Process Responsibilities

Read and validate configuration files

Open, bind, and close sockets

Manage worker processes according to configuration

Handle external commands such as restart, upgrade, and shutdown

Perform graceful upgrades without interrupting service

Open log files and obtain file descriptors

Rollback on failed upgrades

Compile and execute Perl scripts

Worker Process Responsibilities

Accept and process client requests

Dispatch requests to appropriate modules

Perform I/O operations and generate responses

Communicate with upstream servers

Cache data and retrieve cached entries

Send responses back to clients

Receive commands from the master process

Core Configuration Highlights

Creating a new mobile web site, using location directives, four‑layer access control via ngx_http_access_module, file existence checks, and advanced settings.

Reverse Proxy

Reverse proxy forwards external requests to internal servers and returns the response to the client.

Production Deployment Structure