Nginx Proxy Manager vs InfraPilot: Is There a Better Alternative?

What Is Nginx Proxy Manager?

Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM) is an open-source Docker container that wraps Nginx with a web UI for managing proxy hosts, SSL certificates, and redirects. It's been the default answer to "how do I add a GUI to Nginx?" for several years, and for good reason — it's simple, reliable, and free.

If you run any self-hosted services behind a domain, you've almost certainly heard of it. The typical self-hoster's stack looks like this:

Nginx Proxy Manager   — reverse proxy + SSL
Portainer (or CLI)    — container management
Some alerting tool    — monitoring & alerts

Three separate tools. Three UIs. Three sets of logs to check when something breaks at 2am.

Where Nginx Proxy Manager Falls Short

NPM is excellent at its core job. The limitations surface when you want more:

• No container visibility. NPM manages Nginx config. It has no idea what containers are running, their health, or their resource usage.
• No traffic analytics. You can see that a proxy host exists, but not how many requests it's handling, what the error rate is, or which paths get the most traffic.
• No alerting. NPM won't notify you when a container crashes, a certificate expires unexpectedly, or upstream health drops.
• No deployment workflows. Rolling out a new image version means SSH + docker pull + docker compose up. NPM isn't involved.
• Limited IP filtering. Per-host IP allowlists/denylists require editing Nginx configs directly; the UI support is basic.

Nginx Proxy Manager vs InfraPilot: Feature Comparison

Feature	Nginx Proxy Manager	InfraPilot CE
Reverse proxy host management	✓	✓
Automatic SSL (Let's Encrypt)	✓	✓
HTTP/HTTPS redirects	✓	✓
Basic auth per host	✓	✓
Custom Nginx config (advanced)	✓	Partial
Wildcard SSL certificates	✓ (DNS challenge)	✓ (DNS challenge)
Stream proxying (TCP/UDP)	✓	✗
Container management	✗	✓
Docker Compose stack management	✗	✓
Container logs (real-time)	✗	✓
HTTP traffic analytics	✗	✓
IP allowlists / denylists	Basic	✓
Security headers (HSTS, CSP, X-Frame)	Basic	✓
Alert rules (container crash, uptime)	✗	✓
CD webhooks & rollback	✗	✓
License	MIT	AGPL-3.0

When to Keep Using Nginx Proxy Manager

NPM is the right tool if:

• You need stream proxying (TCP/UDP). NPM supports Nginx stream module for proxying non-HTTP traffic. InfraPilot currently covers HTTP/HTTPS only.
• You need deep custom Nginx config. NPM lets you paste raw Nginx config into the advanced tab. InfraPilot exposes common settings through the UI but doesn't expose raw config editing.
• Your stack is already built around NPM. Migration cost is real. If NPM meets your needs and you're not hitting its limits, there's no reason to change.

When InfraPilot Makes More Sense

InfraPilot is worth considering if:

• You're managing containers and proxies together. Having container health, resource usage, logs, and proxy config in one UI dramatically reduces context-switching during incidents.
• You want traffic analytics. Per-host request rate, error rate, status code breakdown, and top paths are built in — no Prometheus setup required.
• You want real alerting. Container crash notifications, uptime monitoring, memory threshold alerts, and certificate expiry warnings — all configurable in the UI.
• You're tired of the three-tool stack. Replacing NPM + Portainer + a monitoring tool with a single container simplifies your setup significantly.

Migration from Nginx Proxy Manager

If you decide to switch, migration is straightforward:

1. Install InfraPilot alongside NPM (different ports) — don't remove NPM yet
2. Recreate your proxy hosts in InfraPilot — domains, upstream targets, SSL settings
3. Test each host via InfraPilot before cutting over DNS or switching your main Nginx config
4. Once satisfied, stop NPM and remove it

Since InfraPilot runs Nginx internally, your SSL certificates will be provisioned fresh — there's no certificate migration needed.