[14] As of March 2022[update], Netcraft estimated that Nginx served 22.01% of the million busiest websites with Apache a little ahead at 23.04%.

[23][24] Other features include upgrading executable and configuration without client connections loss,[37] and a module-based architecture with both core[38] and third-party module support.

[39] The paid Plus product includes additional features such as advanced load balancing and access to an expanded suite of metrics for performance monitoring.

[43][44] This former performance boost came at a cost of decreased flexibility, such as the ability to override system-wide access settings on a per-file basis (Apache accomplishes this with an .htaccess file, while Nginx has no such feature built in).

[49] By version 1.11.0, the support was extended to Java, Node.js, Perl, and Ruby applications; other features include dynamic configuration, request routing, and load balancing.

[9] Originally, Nginx was developed to solve the C10k problem, and to fill the needs of multiple websites including the Rambler search engine and portal, for which it was serving 500 million requests per day by September 2008.

[52] Nginx Inc. was founded in July 2011 by Sysoev and Maxim Konovalov[12][53] to provide commercial products and support for the software.

[60] In October 2013, Nginx, Inc. raised a $10 million series B investment round led by New Enterprise Associates.

[68] In June 2018, Nginx, Inc. raised $43 million in Series C Funding in a round led by Goldman Sachs "to Accelerate Application Modernization and Digital Transformation for Enterprises".

The raid was conducted under a search warrant connected to a copyright claim over Nginx by Rambler—which asserts that it owns all rights to the code because it was written while Sysoev was an employee of the company.