Nginx is a powerful and efficient web server and reverse proxy. It is designed to handle concurrent connections efficiently and excels at serving static content, such as images, CSS, and JavaScript files. Nginx can also act as a load balancer to distribute incoming traffic across multiple backend servers, making it ideal for managing high-traffic websites. Nginx is often used to complement application servers like Node.js, PHP, or Ruby on Rails, where it can handle static content delivery and act as a reverse proxy to route requests to the appropriate application server.
Node.js is best suited for building real-time, event-driven applications that require handling many concurrent connections and benefit from its asynchronous nature. Nginx, on the other hand, is an excellent choice for serving static content efficiently and balancing load across multiple backend servers. In practice, it is common to see Nginx used as a front-end proxy that routes requests to different application servers, including those running Node.js, based on the type of content and the application’s requirements.