How to Install Nginx on Ubuntu (apt install nginx, UFW Firewall, and Your First Server Block)

Short answer: run sudo apt update && sudo apt install nginx. Ubuntu starts and enables the service automatically, so it's already running. Open the firewall with sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full' (allow OpenSSH first if UFW isn't enabled yet), then visit http://your_server_ip and you should see the "Welcome to nginx!" page. To host your own site, create a server block in /etc/nginx/sites-available/, symlink it into sites-enabled/, and run sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx. The steps below work on current Ubuntu LTS releases such as 22.04 and 24.04.

What Is Nginx?

Nginx is an open source web server that also works as a reverse proxy, load balancer, and HTTP cache. It uses an event-driven architecture, so a small number of worker processes can handle a large number of concurrent connections with modest memory. That's why it's the default choice for serving static sites, fronting Node.js, Python, and PHP apps, and terminating TLS.

You have two ways to install it on Ubuntu:

Source	Command	Version	Config layout	Best for
Ubuntu repository	apt install nginx	Fixed per Ubuntu release, gets security patches	sites-available/ + sites-enabled/	Most servers, simplest updates
nginx.org repository	Add repo, then apt install nginx	Latest stable or mainline	conf.d/*.conf	When you need newer features

Start with the Ubuntu package unless you know you need a feature from a newer release.

Prerequisites

• An Ubuntu server with a non-root user that has sudo
• SSH access
• Optional: a domain name with an A record pointing to the server's IP (needed later for HTTPS)

Step 1: Install Nginx from the Ubuntu Repository

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y nginx

Check the installed version and confirm the service is running:

nginx -v
systemctl status nginx --no-pager

You should see Active: active (running). Ubuntu enables the service at boot by default. You can confirm that with systemctl is-enabled nginx.

Step 2: Allow Nginx Through the UFW Firewall

Nginx registers three UFW application profiles when it installs:

sudo ufw app list
# Available applications:
#   Nginx Full
#   Nginx HTTP
#   Nginx HTTPS
#   OpenSSH

Profile	Opens	Use it when
Nginx HTTP	Port 80	Plain HTTP only, before you add TLS
Nginx HTTPS	Port 443	HTTPS only
Nginx Full	Ports 80 and 443	Most sites: HTTPS plus the HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect

Allow SSH before enabling the firewall so you don't lock yourself out:

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status

If your server runs on a cloud provider, also check its security group or cloud firewall. UFW rules don't help if the provider is blocking port 80 upstream.

Step 3: Check That Nginx Is Serving Pages

From the server:

curl -I http://localhost
# HTTP/1.1 200 OK
# Server: nginx/...

From your own machine, open http://your_server_ip in a browser. To find the public IP:

curl -4 -s https://icanhazip.com

If you see the "Welcome to nginx!" page, the install worked.

Step 4: Manage the Nginx Service

Task	Command
Test the configuration	sudo nginx -t
Reload config without dropping connections	sudo systemctl reload nginx
Restart (full stop and start)	sudo systemctl restart nginx
Stop	sudo systemctl stop nginx
Start	sudo systemctl start nginx
Disable start at boot	sudo systemctl disable nginx
Show the full effective config	sudo nginx -T

Use reload for config changes. It starts new workers with the new config and lets old workers finish their requests, so visitors don't see errors. Always run nginx -t first. If the test fails, a reload is refused and the old config keeps running, but a restart with a broken config leaves Nginx stopped.

Step 5: Learn the Nginx File Layout on Ubuntu

Path	What lives there
/etc/nginx/nginx.conf	Main config: worker settings, http block, includes
/etc/nginx/sites-available/	One file per site (server block); not active by itself
/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/	Symlinks to the sites that are live
/etc/nginx/conf.d/	Extra http-level config, loaded automatically (*.conf)
/etc/nginx/snippets/	Reusable fragments, such as fastcgi-php.conf
/var/www/html/	The default site's web root
/var/log/nginx/access.log	Every request
/var/log/nginx/error.log	Errors, failed upstream connections, config warnings

The sites-available / sites-enabled split is a Debian and Ubuntu convention. It lets you disable a site by removing a symlink without deleting its config.

Step 6: Create Your First Server Block

A server block (Nginx's version of an Apache virtual host) tells Nginx which domain to answer for and where its files live. Create a web root and a test page:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/html
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/example.com/html
echo '<h1>example.com is working</h1>' > /var/www/example.com/html/index.html

Create /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com:

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    server_name example.com www.example.com;

    root /var/www/example.com/html;
    index index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    access_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.access.log;
    error_log  /var/log/nginx/example.com.error.log;
}

Enable it, and optionally disable the default site:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default   # optional
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

Test it before DNS has propagated by sending the right Host header:

curl -H "Host: example.com" http://your_server_ip

Key Server Block Directives

Directive	Meaning
listen 80; / listen [::]:80;	Accept IPv4 and IPv6 connections on port 80
server_name	Domain names this block answers for
root	Directory that files are served from
index	File to serve for a directory request
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;	Serve the file or directory if it exists, otherwise return 404

If you add many long domain names, nginx -t may complain with could not build server_names_hash. Uncomment server_names_hash_bucket_size 64; in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf.

Optional: Install the Latest Nginx from nginx.org

The official nginx.org packages track the current stable release. Install the prerequisites and the signing key:

sudo apt install -y curl gnupg2 ca-certificates lsb-release ubuntu-keyring
curl -fsSL https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key | gpg --dearmor \
  | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/nginx-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null

Add the stable repository and pin it above Ubuntu's own package:

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nginx-archive-keyring.gpg] \
http://nginx.org/packages/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) nginx" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list

printf "Package: *\nPin: origin nginx.org\nPin: release o=nginx\nPin-Priority: 900\n" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/99nginx

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y nginx
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx

Replace packages/ubuntu with packages/mainline/ubuntu for the mainline branch. Before switching, check the nginx.org docs for the exact steps for your release, and note the differences: this package uses /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf for sites (no sites-enabled), runs workers as the nginx user instead of www-data, and doesn't ship Ubuntu's snippets/ directory.

Next Steps After Installing Nginx

A fresh install serves plain HTTP. For a production site, work through these in order:

1. Add HTTPS: install a free Let's Encrypt certificate with Certbot. For a server without a public domain, create a self-signed certificate.
2. Proxy to your app: set up Nginx as a reverse proxy for Node.js, Python, or Go, or configure PHP-FPM for PHP.
3. Harden it: add security headers and rate limiting.
4. Speed it up: enable Gzip and Brotli compression.

Also hide the exact version from error pages and the Server header by adding this to the http block in nginx.conf:

server_tokens off;

Troubleshooting Nginx Installation on Ubuntu

Symptom	Cause	Fix
bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)	Apache or another service holds port 80	sudo ss -tlnp | grep ':80', then stop and disable it: sudo systemctl disable --now apache2
Browser times out, curl localhost works	Firewall or cloud security group blocks port 80	sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full' and open the port in your provider's firewall
Still seeing "Welcome to nginx!" for your domain	Default site matched first or your site isn't enabled	Check the symlink in sites-enabled/, remove default, reload
403 Forbidden	No index file, or Nginx can't read the web root	Add index.html, check permissions with namei -l /var/www/example.com/html/index.html
404 Not Found for every page	Wrong root path	Fix root and run sudo nginx -t
nginx: [emerg] unknown directive	Typo, or a module that isn't installed	Check spelling, and check the module with nginx -V
apt says Unable to locate package nginx	Package lists out of date	Run sudo apt update first
Changes don't take effect	Config not reloaded, or edited the wrong file	sudo nginx -T | grep server_name to see what's loaded

The error log almost always tells you exactly what's wrong:

sudo tail -n 50 /var/log/nginx/error.log
sudo journalctl -u nginx --no-pager -n 50

Monitor Your New Nginx Server

Once your site is live, you need to know when it stops responding, whether that's a bad config reload, a full disk, or the server going away. Checking from the server itself won't help when the server is the thing that's down.

GreenCrew checks your site over HTTP from outside your network and alerts you on Discord, Slack, or Telegram when it goes down. You also get a public status page to share with your users. Add a check as soon as your first server block is live, and see how to get website downtime alerts on Discord, Slack, and Telegram for the full setup.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I check if Nginx is installed on Ubuntu?

Run nginx -v to print the version, and systemctl status nginx to see whether it's running. If the command isn't found, it isn't installed. dpkg -l | grep nginx lists the installed Nginx packages.

Should I use the Ubuntu package or the nginx.org repository?

Use the Ubuntu package for most servers. It gets security fixes through normal apt upgrade and fits Ubuntu's config layout. Use the nginx.org repository when you need a feature or fix that's only in a newer Nginx release.

What's the difference between reload and restart?

reload applies a new config gracefully. Existing connections finish on old workers, and new ones go to new workers. restart stops and starts the whole service, which briefly drops connections. Use reload for config changes.

How do I uninstall Nginx on Ubuntu?

Run sudo apt remove nginx nginx-common to remove the packages but keep config files, or sudo apt purge nginx nginx-common to also delete /etc/nginx. Then run sudo apt autoremove to clean up dependencies. Your files in /var/www aren't removed.

Conclusion

Installing Nginx on Ubuntu takes one apt install, one UFW rule, and a quick curl check. From there, each site gets its own server block in sites-available, enabled with a symlink and applied with nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx. Add HTTPS next, then put GreenCrew in front of it so you hear about downtime from an alert instead of from your users.