Architecture Comparison
| Feature | Apache | Nginx |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Process/thread per connection | Event-driven, async |
| Memory per connection | ~10 MB | ~2.5 KB |
| Static files | Good | Excellent |
| Dynamic content | mod_php built-in | Proxy to PHP-FPM |
| .htaccess | Yes (per-directory config) | No (config only) |
| Config reload | Graceful restart | Zero-downtime reload |
| Module system | Dynamic loading | Compiled or dynamic |
When to Choose Apache
- Shared hosting — .htaccess allows per-directory overrides without server restart
- mod_php — simplest PHP integration (no separate FPM process)
- .htaccess-dependent apps — WordPress, Laravel with
public/.htaccess - Legacy applications — specifically designed for Apache features
When to Choose Nginx
- High traffic — handles 10x more concurrent connections
- Reverse proxy — designed for proxying to backends
- Static files — significantly faster file serving
- Microservices — better load balancing capabilities
- Memory-constrained VPS — much lower memory overhead
Performance Under Load
| Concurrent Connections | Apache Memory | Nginx Memory |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | ~1 GB | ~25 MB |
| 1,000 | ~10 GB | ~250 MB |
| 10,000 | Fails | ~2.5 GB |
Migration Cheat Sheet
.htaccess to Nginx
# Apache .htaccess
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]# Nginx equivalent
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;
}Common Conversions
| Apache | Nginx |
|---|---|
DocumentRoot /var/www/html |
root /var/www/html; |
DirectoryIndex index.php |
index index.php; |
ErrorDocument 404 /404.html |
error_page 404 /404.html; |
Header set X-Frame-Options DENY |
add_header X-Frame-Options DENY; |
Deny from all |
deny all; |
Our Recommendation
For new projects on Kazepute, Nginx is almost always the better choice. It uses less RAM (important on VPS), handles more connections, and the event-driven model is better suited to modern web architectures.
Choose Apache only if you have a specific need for .htaccess or mod_php.
Tip You can also run both — Nginx as a reverse proxy in front of Apache. This gives you Nginx's static file serving and SSL termination with Apache's .htaccess support.