head to head · open source
nginx vs ceryx
nginx has 32,114 GitHub stars, 8,395 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. ceryx has 812 stars, 145 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. nginx leads on adoption by 3,855% (32,114 vs 812 stars). nginx is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; ceryx is written in Python under MIT. nginx has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, ceryx 18%. ceryx was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (nginx, reverse-proxy), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| nginx | ceryx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 812 |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-09 | 2026-11-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.4K | ⑂ 145 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nginx if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ceryx if
- You want the ceryx feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and ceryx fits your workflow better
About nginx
NGINX (pronounced "engine x" or "en jin eks") is the world's most popular Web Server, high performance Load Balancer, Reverse Proxy, API Gateway and Content Cache. NGINX is free and open source software, distributed under the terms of a simplified 2 clause BSD like license. Enterprise distributions, commercial support and training are available from F5, Inc. [!IMPORTANT] The goal of this README is to provide a basic, structured introduction to NGINX for novice users. Please refer to the full NGINX documentation for detailed information on installing, building, configuring, debugging, and more. These…
read the full nginx overview →
About ceryx
Ceryx Rock solid, fast, programmable gateway to your network services. Ceryx is a rock solid, blazing fast, programmable HTTP/S gateway, running in a single container, programmable with an API, supporting tens of thousands of routes (domain based proxying or redirecting). Quick start · API · Running on a server · Configuration Simple architecture One container Straight forward JSON API over HTTP Real time configuration updates without restarts Features Host based routing for HTTP and HTTPS Per route settings Automatic Let's Encrypt certificates, or your own Client certificate authentication (mTLS) HTTP/2 and…
read the full ceryx overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nginx or ceryx more popular?
nginx has 32,114 GitHub stars and ceryx has 812. nginx has the larger community by that measure.
Are nginx and ceryx free?
Both are open source. nginx is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and ceryx under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nginx and ceryx?
nginx is written in C and ceryx in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, nginx or ceryx?
Choose nginx if you want the larger community (32,114 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose ceryx if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.