How to Install Nginx on Ubuntu 26.04

Nginx (pronounced “engine-x”) is a fast, lightweight web server that also works as a reverse proxy, load balancer and HTTP cache. It powers a large share of the busiest websites because it handles thousands of simultaneous connections with very little memory.

This guide shows how to install Nginx on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (Resolute Raccoon), open the firewall, host a website with a server block, secure it with a free Let’s Encrypt certificate, and install the newest Nginx release from the official nginx.org repository if you need it.

Prerequisites

• A server or desktop running Ubuntu 26.04.
• A user account with sudo privileges.
• For HTTPS: a domain name whose DNS A record points to the server’s public IP address.

Which Nginx Version Should You Install?

There are two sources for Nginx on Ubuntu. Pick one; don’t mix them on the same server.

Steps 2 to 6 (firewall, testing, server blocks and HTTPS) apply to both methods, with the small layout differences noted in Method 2.

Ubuntu keeps the version fixed for the life of the release and backports security fixes into it, so an older version number from Ubuntu is still patched. See the Nginx release history for the current stable and mainline versions.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx -y

nginx -v
systemctl status nginx

sudo ufw app list

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

hostname -I
curl -I http://localhost

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/html
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/example.com/html
nano /var/www/example.com/html/index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head><title>example.com</title></head>
  <body><h1>It works! example.com is served by Nginx.</h1></body>
</html>

sudo nano /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 index.htm;

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

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

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y

sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

systemctl list-timers | grep certbot
sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Method 2: Install the Latest Nginx from nginx.org

The Nginx project publishes its own packages for Ubuntu 26.04 with the newest stable or mainline release. If Nginx from Ubuntu is already installed, remove it first so the two don’t conflict:

sudo apt remove nginx nginx-common -y

Install the tools needed to add the repository, then import the nginx.org signing key:

sudo apt install curl gnupg2 ca-certificates lsb-release ubuntu-keyring -y
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. For mainline, replace packages/ubuntu with packages/mainline/ubuntu:

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

Give the nginx.org packages priority over Ubuntu’s, then install:

printf "Package: *nPin: origin nginx.orgnPin: release o=nginxnPin-Priority: 900n" | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/99nginx
sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx -y
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx
nginx -v

Note: The nginx.org package is laid out differently from Ubuntu’s: there’s no sites-available or sites-enabled. Put each site in its own file in /etc/nginx/conf.d/ ending in .conf. The default web root is /usr/share/nginx/html and the worker processes run as the nginx user instead of www-data.

Important Nginx Files and Folders

Troubleshooting

• Nginx fails to start with “Address already in use”: another program, often Apache, is using port 80. Find it with sudo ss -tlnp | grep ‘:80’, then stop it (for Apache: sudo systemctl disable –now apache2).
• 403 Forbidden: Nginx can’t read the files or there’s no index file. Check that the folder is readable with namei -l /var/www/example.com/html/index.html.
• Changes have no effect: run sudo nginx -t; if it reports an error, the reload didn’t apply. Also check that the site is linked in sites-enabled.
• Certbot can’t verify the domain: make sure the domain’s DNS points to this server and that port 80 is open in UFW and in your cloud provider’s firewall.

Uninstall Nginx

Remove Nginx and its configuration files. Your website files in /var/www are not touched:

sudo apt purge nginx nginx-common -y
sudo apt autoremove -y

Conclusion

Nginx is now serving your site over HTTPS on Ubuntu 26.04. Next, install PHP 8.5 on Ubuntu 26.04 for dynamic sites, use Nginx as a reverse proxy for Node.js, Python or Docker apps, and review how to secure your Nginx web server. Running Ubuntu 24.04? See how to install Nginx on Ubuntu 24.04.