We performed a comparison between IBM WebSphere Application Server and NGINX Plus based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Application Infrastructure solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."WebSphere Application Server's best features include the data subscription and connection viewer."
"The only reason why we're currently using WebSphere is that the integration of the authentication with Azure is very quick. WebSphere has something that can immediately connect with Azure Active Directory."
"The VPN service is quite useful."
"What's most valuable in IBM WebSphere Application Server is its resilience. When you use the solution, you know that after the communication has been done, there will be no doubt that the data has reached its destination."
"It does integrate well with the Tivoli Federated Identity Management system."
"The performance is good."
"IBM WAS is extremely scalable. It is easy to add additional servers and to divide the load over servers in all kinds of ways."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is Portal Virtualization."
"I need to highlight that the number one thing about NGINX is that it is free."
"NGINX Plus' most valuable feature is the ingress controller."
"Its most valuable features are load balancing and application delivery. This is the most efficient application for these features because of stability and its efficiency."
"The robust software architecture allows for it to be scalable and very stable."
"The product is lightweight and fast."
"I find the solution’s community support and documentation most valuable. Compared to HAProxy, have found a lot of documentation and community support on Quora. If you would be asking me as a developer whether to choose this product, I would recommend this since it has good community support, documentation, and signature updates. The configuration of HAProxy is also very tedious. However, NGINX’s configuration is very simple."
"The web proxy and the database proxy are excellent."
"The load balancing module, which is equivalent to LTM, is the focus of the PSE. So far, the features of both are identical. I believe NGINX has more features for securing these services, but in terms of load balancing, both are massive solutions."
"When we run into memory or locking issues, we resort to using third-party tools. However, it would be preferable to have native tools for debugging this type of problem."
"Some things are very difficult to do, so the interface and usage could be more intuitive for those."
"It should be able to serve more concurrent requests like Oracle. Oracle has more powerful stability, availability, and real-time serving."
"Sometimes, I feel WebSphere runs a bit slow. It might be loading unnecessary libraries, impacting its performance compared to other application servers."
"The main issue we faced was its limited compatibility with non-Java technologies, which can result in difficulty detecting potential bugs and requiring additional integration efforts."
"What could be improved in IBM WebSphere Application Server is its interconnection with other products, for example, Kafka. What I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is a better graphical user interface."
"In spite of the solution's robustness, it is expensive and a bit difficult to support."
"The licensing could be improved, and I would like it to give the longevity of the lifespan of the visions. In the next release, I would like to be able to download and extract the files so that I can just use my application server."
"The scaling should be built into the software rather than configured from an outside source."
"Our most challenging part was to run an older PHP website reverse-proxied through NGINX. That was not fun."
"They should do in the open source version of what they did to Advanced HTTP, TCP, and UDP load balancing."
"The solution's GUI is an area with certain shortcomings that need improvement."
"NGINX is a very basic load balancer and cannot do as many customizations as F5."
"The center management system could be improved."
"The drawback is that you must obtain a license for everything."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing model."
More IBM WebSphere Application Server Pricing and Cost Advice →
IBM WebSphere Application Server is ranked 5th in Application Infrastructure with 26 reviews while NGINX Plus is ranked 2nd in Application Infrastructure with 28 reviews. IBM WebSphere Application Server is rated 7.8, while NGINX Plus is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of IBM WebSphere Application Server writes "Compatible, stable, and scalable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of NGINX Plus writes "Quick installation and very easy to manage while doing orchestration or automation". IBM WebSphere Application Server is most compared with JBoss Enterprise Application Platform, JBoss, Tomcat, Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle Fusion Middleware, whereas NGINX Plus is most compared with IIS, HAProxy, Kemp LoadMaster, F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) and Microsoft .NET Framework. See our IBM WebSphere Application Server vs. NGINX Plus report.
See our list of best Application Infrastructure vendors.
We monitor all Application Infrastructure reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.