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Magic xpa Application Platform vs NGINX Plus comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Magic xpa Application Platform
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
15th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Application Server (9th), Mobile Development Platforms (11th)
NGINX Plus
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Magic xpa Application Platform is 3.4%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX Plus is 7.8%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NGINX Plus7.8%
Magic xpa Application Platform3.4%
Other88.8%
Application Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

Mylsamy T. - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Associate - IT at Himalaya Wellness Company
Enables us to develop more than 90 applications in-house, which are used across our organization
It's a bit difficult to work with purely web-based applications to get the data and display it. There have been a few times when the connection was disconnected between the server and your browser. The connectivity on browser-built applications needs to be improved. The mobile application development could be easier. They could include different external applications, like finger sensors. I'm not sure whether it's in version 3.8 or not.
Nadeem-Inamdar - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Information Security Engineer at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Advanced policies and web firewall have strengthened application protection and reduced attack traffic
There were some vulnerabilities in F5. They tried to fix it, but the fixes were not available at the time because they were zero days, so they attempted to fix it, but their support was not proper. Their support should be improved because sometimes features which we need for customization take time, and they are sometimes feasible and sometimes not feasible by the team, so their support and the engineering team should improve their product. I would like to see more features regarding customization which should be built into the application, and the tool optimization should be good, and the dashboard should be more crisp and clear.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Magic is rapid, it's a tool which we use to develop, change and maintain our programs, and xpa has a lot more features onboard and it gives us the opportunity to do such things so that we can easily adapt and maintain our programs, giving us certain benefits to stay with our customers and the market."
"Being able to make changes to existing programs to comply with last minute changes in requirements, and/or being able to fix, test, review, and deploy new code in a manner of hours instead of days, definitely gives us a huge advantage over our competitors and this is only possible thanks to Magic’s speed of programming."
"The solution makes the managing and adapting of the software very easy."
"My employees can develop and deploy something in a matter of hours."
"Typically an experienced Magic developer can do the work of two to three experienced C#/.NET developers."
"Magic’s Database Gateway allows the logic of the program to be isolated from the underlying database. This provides the flexibility not only to move existing programs to different database environments without the need to change the logic in the program but also allows the programmer access to different databases without the need to know how to "talk" to them."
"Speed of development and database connectivity (MS SQL, Oracle, DB2, Btrieve/Pervasive PSQL, ODBC, MySql, and SQLite)."
"xpa gives us a fast development speed."
"The most valuable features are the gateway and the ability to publish to sites."
"Using NGINX Plus for web traffic distribution is fantastic. It offers performance similar to physical load balancers but with added flexibility."
"I think NGINX Plus is one of the most powerful and fittest solutions in this area, and I'd recommend it to others."
"Zero Downtime has always been a strength in recommending infrastructure web services, and NGINX allows me to execute such infrastructure with less complications and the ability to switch from server to server easily."
"Application Gateway with application-level firewall tool and load distributor and balancer (also serves for A/B testing)."
"Its most valuable features are load balancing and application delivery. This is the most efficient application for these features because of stability and its efficiency."
"The load balancing module, which is equivalent to LTM, is the focus of the PSE, and so far, the features of both are identical, and I believe NGINX has more features for securing these services, but in terms of load balancing, both are massive solutions."
"I need to highlight that the number one thing about NGINX is that it is free."
 

Cons

"The configuration of the xpa RIA mobile environment is complex and a discouragement to new developers. Also, Magic's documentation can be less than complete at times which leads to frustration for new developers. (I encourage new Magic developers to join the Magic Users Group)."
"There is room for improvement in Magic's marketing and licensing. I would like to see more integration of web functionality."
"Magic has a tradition, when it adds new technologies/features to the Magic development tool, to provide either no documentation or documentation that does not provide an organized approach for bringing this new technology/feature to experienced Magic programmers."
"I would like to see a spell checker included with optional language support. Currently, this has to be purchased from a third-party."
"In the next version of the Magic xpa Application Platform, I want tables or small programs where I can directly add expressions. I can do it on SQL, but it would make life much easier if that specification were added to the platform."
"Support is very bad."
"They want to be one toolbox for everything, but primarily, we are using xpa to develop desktop applications, and in that area they're lacking functionalities, flexibility, and modern stuff."
"The user interface could be improved to be more friendly for developers."
"The KPI on NGINX Plus should be more focused on load balancing and the latency in application calling from the end system."
"The drawback is that you must obtain a license for everything."
"They should do in the open source version of what they did to Advanced HTTP, TCP, and UDP load balancing."
"The scaling should be built into the software rather than configured from an outside source."
"NGINX is a very basic load balancer and cannot do as many customizations as F5."
"They tried to fix it, but the fixes were not available at the time because they were zero days, so they attempted to fix it, but their support was not proper."
"It would be great if there was even more automation to make it even easier to maintain."
"NGINX Plus is moderately priced, but it could give better value for money."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing is too costly."
"The main problem with the Magic xpa Application Platform is pricing. You have to pay a lot of money for development, and you also have to pay a lot for the deployments and runtime, while in most competitors, you have to pay a lot for one of the two and not both."
"The cost for developers is high because you have to pay for licenses as well as runtime."
"There are different licenses, we have the application and the online application. There are two different licenses for two different program sites for the Magic xpa Application Platform."
"The licensing cost varies because nowadays Magic has tailor-made offerings for clients. I think the solution is worth the money."
"Magic is not the cheapest IDE out there. If you are considering Magic xpa, you should do a cost-benefit analysis to feel comfortable with your decision. The Magic sales staff is very helpful in providing pricing."
"My clients have to purchase additional licenses in order to use what I built. It's not a fair approach."
"It's not cheap. The licenses are not cheap. Not at all. They cost much money. There are other tools with free licenses but Magic asks for a lot of money."
"The solution is free, but you can spend a lot of money with a complex solution."
"I use the solution's community edition which is free of cost."
"It's an open source solution, so it's free."
"There's an open-source version of NGINX that is free."
"I am not so happy with their pricing policy, but this is not the worse thing in my life. I can tolerate it."
"The price is the cost to contract support with a specialized company, usually during consulting hours.​"
"The list price of NGINX Plus is close to $5,500."
"​NGINX Plus is worth it, if you need it. If you do not need the features or support, the free and open source package is more than capable. ​"
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

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Which is better - IIS or NGINX Plus?
IIS is a flexible, secure, and manageable web server to host anything on the web. IIS’s scalable and open architecture can handle the most demanding tasks. From media streaming to web applications,...
What needs improvement with NGINX Plus?
There were some vulnerabilities in F5. They tried to fix it, but the fixes were not available at the time because they were zero days, so they attempted to fix it, but their support was not proper....
 

Also Known As

uniPaaS
NGINX, F5 NGINX Plus
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ADD, Cape plc, Adecco, Kuno Kinzoku Industry Co., GE Capital, Dove Tree, CBS Outdoor, Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center, Allstate Life Insurance Company, Titan Software Systems
Locaweb, AppNexus, Wix, Reliam, Montana Interactive, MuleSoft, Warpwire, Discovery Education, InkaBinka, WordPress.com, Gogo, GOV.UK, NASA
Find out what your peers are saying about Magic xpa Application Platform vs. NGINX Plus and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.