HAProxy vs. NGINX

If you want to use NGINX for both web serving and load balancing, you can. A more optimal solution would be to use HAProxy for load balancing and NGINX for serving web pages.

HAProxy:

• Load balancer
• More fully featured load balancing
• Generally considered a better load balancer
• PROXY protocol support
• NOT a web server
• Better status page
• Better third party integration

NGINX:

• Web server and load balancer

Keep in mind there is a free version and NGINX Plus.