I want to implement a chat web application with Node.js & Socket.io. I’m currently using Apache as web server but I have heard that nginx can handle more requests with more concurrency than that of Apache because of the non-blocking nature of the system.
Will choosing Apache when I’m using Node.js & Socket.io will give me poor performance compared to choosing nginx?
If nginx is much better with Node.js & Socket.io, what is a good plan and a strategy to migrate my existing virtualhost file, extensions and pecls? I’m using Ubuntu 11.04 Natty on Amazon EC2.
Apache is more flexable then Nginx but it comes with a high price in performance.
With Nginx you need to think a little different so might be able to skip some of your extensions. The virtualhost-file does not exist in Nginx, it’s all static in the config-file.
I recommend using Nginx with the HTTP Push module. It’s even supplied with a chat example.