NATSvsNGINX
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| NATS | NGINX | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80/100 | 84/100 |
| Rank in category | #2 of 12 in Message Broker | #2 of 12 in Web Servers |
| GitHub stars | 20 954 | 31 998 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +192 | +277 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 18 | 21 |
| Latest release | v2.14.9 · 26 Oct 2026 | release-1.31.8 · 21 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | Yes | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Main language | Go | C |
Which one should you pick?
NGINX scores 84/100 against 80/100 for NATS, so it is the safer default.
NGINX ships more often: 21 stable releases in the past year, against 18 for NATS.
Swap a project
Keep NATS, compare it with
Keep NGINX, compare it with