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Head-to-head · Load Balancer Services

NGINX Plus vs Envoy Proxy

  • Updated Oct 2026
  • Both researched from official sources
  • 2 checks side by side
Higher score NGINX Plus #4 in Load Balancer Services 8.8/10 Pricing on request · 30-day trial Free trial✓ 1 of 3 features Visit NGINX Plus
Envoy Proxy #7 in Load Balancer Services 8.5/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 1 of 3 features Visit Envoy

NGINX Plus leads on 0 checks, Envoy Proxy on 1, and 1 is even. Who comes out ahead on the 2 yes/no, price and count checks where we have data for both products. The editor score weighs everything else too.

Our verdict

  • Highest scoreNGINX Plus · 8.8/10
  • Free planonly Envoy Proxy
  • Free trialonly NGINX Plus

NGINX Plus scores higher on our rubric for load balancer services: 8.8 against 8.5 out of 10; our editors rank them #4 and #7.

Envoy Proxy offers free plan; NGINX Plus doesn't.

NGINX Plus is the better fit for teams needing advanced self-hosted proxying. Envoy Proxy is the better fit for engineers needing powerful open-source proxying.

  • NGINX Plus fits best

    Teams needing advanced self-hosted proxying

  • Envoy Proxy fits best

    Engineers needing powerful open-source proxying

Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. Vendors can pay for top positions in our rankings and for a place on other products' pages, and we may earn a commission when you click some links. Bought places stand at the number bought; this page and our disclosure say so. Paying vendors may get a fuller, more detailed review from our editors, and that review can change their score. How we rank.

Side by side

Feature NGINX Plus 8.8/10 Visit ↗ Envoy Proxy 8.5/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score 8.8 8.5
Ranking #4 in Load Balancer Services #7 in Load Balancer Services
Best for Teams needing advanced self-hosted proxying Engineers needing powerful open-source proxying
Pricing model Paid Free
Starting price Pricing on request · 30-day trial Free plan
Free plan — ✓ (best)
Free trial 30 days —
Deployment Cloud, Self-hosted Self-hosted
Platforms Linux Windows, macOS, Linux
Support Phone, Tickets, Community, Docs Community, Docs
Built for Enterprise, Mid-market Mid-market, Enterprise
Features NGINX Plus 1/3 · Envoy Proxy 1/3
TLS termination ✓ ✓
Sticky sessions Not checked yet Not checked yet
DNS traffic steering Not checked yet Not checked yet
Specs
Balancing layers Not checked yet Not checked yet
Global regions Not checked yet Not checked yet
Backend target limit Not checked yet Not checked yet
Our review
Pros
  • Combines Layer 4/7 balancing with advanced routing and active health checks
  • Provides 200+ monitoring metrics and API-driven configuration without reloads
  • Adds high availability, TLS management, and API gateway capabilities
  • Broad HTTP, HTTP/2, HTTP/3, gRPC and WebSocket support
  • Advanced load balancing with retries, circuit breaking and health detection
  • Static or dynamic xDS configuration with built-in observability
Cons
  • Subscription pricing requires contacting sales
  • No free plan is available
  • Designed for supported Linux environments, containers, Kubernetes, and clouds
  • Self-managed deployment puts operations and maintenance on your team
  • No vendor-hosted SaaS model or paid service tiers
  • Cache documentation notes the cache filter is work-in-progress in some versions
Our verdict

NGINX Plus is F5’s commercial application delivery software for organizations running applications, APIs, Kubernetes environments, and AI workloads. It combines reverse proxying with Layer 4 and Layer 7 load balancing, TCP and UDP support,…

Read the review →

Envoy Proxy is open-source Layer 7 proxy software for modern service-oriented architectures. It can run as an edge proxy, service-mesh data plane or sidecar alongside application servers. Engineers can use it for HTTP routing and…

Read the review →
  1. NGINX PlusLoad Balancer Services 8.8Pricing on request · 30-day trial
  2. Envoy ProxyLoad Balancer Services 8.5Free plan

Strengths and trade-offs

  • NGINX Plus — where it wins

    • Combines Layer 4/7 balancing with advanced routing and active health checks
    • Provides 200+ monitoring metrics and API-driven configuration without reloads
    • Adds high availability, TLS management, and API gateway capabilities

    Where it doesn't

    • Subscription pricing requires contacting sales
    • No free plan is available
    • Designed for supported Linux environments, containers, Kubernetes, and clouds

  • Envoy Proxy — where it wins

    • Broad HTTP, HTTP/2, HTTP/3, gRPC and WebSocket support
    • Advanced load balancing with retries, circuit breaking and health detection
    • Static or dynamic xDS configuration with built-in observability

    Where it doesn't

    • Self-managed deployment puts operations and maintenance on your team
    • No vendor-hosted SaaS model or paid service tiers
    • Cache documentation notes the cache filter is work-in-progress in some versions
  • NGINX Plus8.8/10 · Pricing on request · 30-day trial

    Advanced Layer 4/7 traffic management for teams operating self-hosted applications and APIs.

    Visit NGINX PlusFull verdict →
  • Envoy Proxy8.5/10 · Free plan

    A capable self-hosted Layer 7 proxy for teams that want control over traffic management.

    Visit EnvoyFull verdict →

More comparisons

All load balancer services comparisons → · Full ranking →

Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026

Last updated · How we research and update