In-depth comparison of Nginx, LVS and HAProxy to choose the most suitable load balancing solution!

Nginx
Lightweight, supports HTTP layer load balancing and reverse proxy.

Good at HTTP layer content processing (such as URL routing, caching, compression, static resource distribution), essentially a Web Server + Reverse Proxy.

Advantages:
High performance: Nginx adopts an event-driven asynchronous non-blocking model, which can efficiently handle a large number of concurrent connections.

Versatility: In addition to load balancing, Nginx also has functions such as Web server, reverse proxy, and cache.

Simple configuration: The configuration file is relatively simple and easy to understand, and easy to use.

Powerful ecology, combined with OpenResty, dynamic logic can be realized.

Disadvantages:
Relatively weak performance of layer-4 load balancing: When handling a large number of TCP connections, the performance may not be as good as LVS and HAProxy.

The performance is slightly lower than that of dedicated load balancing tools (such as HAProxy and LVS).

The memory management under high concurrency is not as fine as HAProxy.

HAProxy

Designed for high-availability load balancing, especially good at handling TCP traffic.

Suitable for TCP applications, HTTP/HTTPS load balancing and other scenarios.

It performs well in both layer-4 (transport layer) and layer-7 load balancing.


Advantages:
Supports L4 and L7 dual-layer load balancing

Supports both TCP and HTTP protocols, and is widely applicable.

High performance and stability

Written in C language, with high connection processing efficiency, suitable for carrying high-concurrency services.

Powerful health check capabilities

Supports TCP check, HTTP status code check, and custom script check to ensure high availability of backend services.

Disadvantages:
Relatively complex configuration: The configuration file is relatively complex and requires a certain learning cost.

Weak web server function: Mainly focused on load balancing, web server function is not as good as Nginx.

Weaker static file processing ability than nginx: The static file processing ability is not as good as nginx.

LVS (Linux Virtual Server)
Load balancer based on Linux kernel, with extremely high performance.

Mainly used for L4 load balancing, handling a large number of concurrent connections.

Suitable for scenarios such as large websites and high-traffic TCP applications.


Advantages:
High performance: Based on Linux kernel, it works in kernel space and can handle extremely large concurrent connections.

Strong L4 load balancing capability: It has absolute advantages in L4 load balancing.

High stability: It performs stably under high load environment.

Low cost: It belongs to Linux kernel level, so the cost is low.

Disadvantages:

Weak L7 load balancing capability: It mainly focuses on L4 load balancing and cannot distribute traffic based on application layer information.

Relatively complex configuration: It requires a deep understanding of Linux network knowledge.


Relatively single function: It is mainly used for load balancing and does not have other functions such as web server.

Relatively weak health check capability: Relatively speaking, the health check function is not as good as HAProxy and nginx.

Comparison of the three
Nginx is suitable for rapid deployment, small projects or services that need to be changed frequently.

HAProxy is more suitable for medium and large systems, especially when doing traffic layered routing.

LVS is usually used in the core systems of large manufacturers and operators, and relies more on professional maintenance personnel.