But when it comes to real world usage, many production instances I observe these days still deploy apache a lot. Even cpanel based web hosting (shared or dedicated instances) are more often apache based than nginx.
Is it due to some old habits and dependence on apache specific features like .htaccess support? Or is it the case that apache has actually caught up in the race with ngnix and the performance difference is quite negligible these days?
You may ask why Apache then? Well, because when a user modify some settings via dashboard, they change in .htaccess which does not expect a web server restart or super user permissions like you need with NGINX, for example.
Now you know why WordPress websites are getting hacked easier than other CMS-es...because they can apply changes in .htaccess on the fly, whereas with other web servers, you need root permissions, thus the extra layer of security.
When people ask these questions, do they think people are actively choosing to use the old technology? That's a huge misunderstanding. It's not an apache vs nginx decision. It's do nothing vs spend precious time on a side quest to upgrade. Opportunity cost is your answer.
And re: performance, keep in mind that very few applications are limited by the speed of their HTTP server. You first look at your application servers, networks, disks, databases. If your app is truly HTTP-bound, well you're probably not still using Apache! IOW the people who NEED to upgrade from apache for performance reason already have. For the rest, there is no incentive.
warmax356•2h ago