# NGINX alternatives: what AI models name instead, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. 377 of the 504 answers in the 2 categories where NGINX holds a standing named it neither first nor as an alternative; these are the first choices those answers made. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/nginx/alternatives/

## Named instead, most often (every category and segment added)

- Kong Gateway: 74
- Zuplo: 33
- Amazon API Gateway: 28
- Apigee: 25
- F5 BIG-IP: 13
- Apache APISIX: 12

## Load balancers

**Small business**: 37 of 84 answers did not name NGINX (NGINX is #2 of 13 at 14%).

- AWS Elastic Load Balancing: first choice in 5 of those 37
- Kemp LoadMaster: first choice in 5 of those 37
- Progress Kemp LoadMaster: first choice in 5 of those 37
- AWS Application Load Balancer: first choice in 3 of those 37
- Application Load Balancer: first choice in 3 of those 37
- Cloudflare Load Balancing: first choice in 3 of those 37
- Azure Load Balancer: first choice in 2 of those 37
- Google Cloud Load Balancing: first choice in 2 of those 37

**Mid-market**: 45 of 84 answers did not name NGINX (NGINX is #3 of 13 at 15%).

- HAProxy: first choice in 6 of those 45
- Progress Kemp LoadMaster: first choice in 5 of those 45
- Radware Alteon: first choice in 2 of those 45
- AWS Application Load Balancer: first choice in 1 of those 45
- AWS Elastic Load Balancing: first choice in 1 of those 45
- Application Load Balancer: first choice in 1 of those 45
- Cloudflare Load Balancer: first choice in 1 of those 45
- Cloudflare Load Balancing: first choice in 1 of those 45

**Enterprise**: 55 of 84 answers did not name NGINX (NGINX is #4 of 10 at 4%).

- F5 BIG-IP: first choice in 13 of those 55
- HAProxy: first choice in 3 of those 55
- Loadbalancer.org Enterprise ADC: first choice in 3 of those 55
- Cloudflare Load Balancing: first choice in 2 of those 55
- F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: first choice in 2 of those 55
- Kemp LoadMaster: first choice in 2 of those 55
- Progress Kemp LoadMaster: first choice in 2 of those 55
- AWS Application Load Balancer: first choice in 1 of those 55

## API gateways

**Small business**: 79 of 84 answers did not name NGINX (NGINX is #9 of 10 at 0%).

- Zuplo: first choice in 27 of those 79
- Kong Gateway: first choice in 22 of those 79
- Amazon API Gateway: first choice in 19 of those 79
- Tyk: first choice in 5 of those 79
- Cloudflare API Gateway: first choice in 3 of those 79
- Traefik Hub: first choice in 3 of those 79
- Apache APISIX: first choice in 2 of those 79
- Amazon API Gateway's HTTP API: first choice in 1 of those 79

**Mid-market**: 79 of 84 answers did not name NGINX (NGINX is #10 of 11 at 0%).

- Kong Gateway: first choice in 31 of those 79
- Apache APISIX: first choice in 9 of those 79
- Amazon API Gateway: first choice in 6 of those 79
- Tyk: first choice in 4 of those 79
- Zuplo: first choice in 4 of those 79
- API Umbrella: first choice in 1 of those 79
- Apigee: first choice in 1 of those 79
- Azure API Management: first choice in 1 of those 79

**Enterprise**: 82 of 84 answers did not name NGINX.

- Apigee: first choice in 24 of those 82
- Kong Gateway: first choice in 21 of those 82
- Amazon API Gateway: first choice in 3 of those 82
- Tyk: first choice in 3 of those 82
- Azure API Management: first choice in 2 of those 82
- Zuplo: first choice in 2 of those 82
- Apache APISIX: first choice in 1 of those 82
- Google Apigee subscription: first choice in 1 of those 82

Published under CC BY 4.0. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.