Install Nginx on macOS

High-performance web server, reverse proxy, load balancer and HTTP cache.

Toolweb-serverreverse-proxyload-balancerhttpproxy

Installation

Nginx (Homebrew) · Homebrew

$ brew install nginx

Homebrew configures Nginx to listen on port 8080 by default (no root required).

Verify the installation

Verify

$ nginx -v

Service

Start

$ brew services start nginx

Stop

$ brew services stop nginx

Status

$ brew services info nginx

Restart

$ brew services restart nginx

Important files

Type	Path	Description
config	/opt/homebrew/etc/nginx/nginx.conf	Main configuration file (Apple Silicon; /usr/local/etc on Intel).
config	/opt/homebrew/etc/nginx/servers	Per-site configuration directory (included by nginx.conf).
log	/opt/homebrew/var/log/nginx	Access and error logs.

Default ports

8080

Command-line tools

nginxThe server binary; also used for control (nginx -s reload|stop).

Uninstall

brew services stop nginx
brew uninstall nginx

Good to know

Homebrew's Nginx listens on http://localhost:8080 by default, not port 80, so it runs without root.
To serve on port 80, change the listen directive and start with sudo (sudo nginx or sudo brew services start nginx).
Test the configuration with nginx -t before reloading with nginx -s reload.

Installation with Homebrew

brew install nginx installs Nginx and a default configuration that listens on port 8080 (not 80), so it can run without root. Start it as a service with brew services start nginx, then browse http://localhost:8080.

Configuration

The main file is /opt/homebrew/etc/nginx/nginx.conf (Apple Silicon; /usr/local/etc on Intel). Add per-site files under /opt/homebrew/etc/nginx/servers. Validate with nginx -t, then nginx -s reload.

Serving on port 80

To listen on the standard HTTP port, change listen 8080; to listen 80; and start Nginx with elevated privileges (sudo nginx), since ports below 1024 require root.