You installed a CRM or an automation tool on your server, and the team reaches it through an IP and an odd port, with no padlock. nginx sits in front of those apps: it takes the traffic, serves HTTPS and distributes requests. Its official docs cover HTTPS setup, load balancing and WebSocket proxying.
Who this is NOT for
If your website lives on managed hosting, Shopify or a site builder, you don't need it: your provider already handles this, and touching it only brings trouble. It's also not for you if nobody on your team edits config files on a Linux server: this page is a technical reference manual, not a point-and-click installer. In that case, pay for hosting that gives you HTTPS out of the box.
It's the invisible piece: when you self-host Twenty or n8n, something has to sit in front, and it's usually this. The classic mistake is pasting configs from forums without understanding how nginx decides which site handles each request. The 'How nginx processes a request' and 'Server names' sections will save you hours of 'it won't load and I don't know why'. A rule we follow running several sites on one server: validate the config before reloading. One bad file can take every site down at once when you restart. Note: we couldn't retrieve the license or popularity data, so this entry makes no claims about either.
Your first step
Open https://nginx.org/en/docs/ and read the 'Beginner's Guide' end to end, then the 'Configuring HTTPS servers' section. Don't install anything yet.
The nginx implementation guide
The project belongs to nginx.org and it is free: the link beside asks for nothing. The guide to set it up without getting lost is ours: step by step, common mistakes and a checklist. Leave your email and we will send it.
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