Nginx is one of the fastest server for web. So installing it in your mac is not so difficult. I am describing here about how to Install Nginx mac brew

First you may need to stop the apache, that already running in your system. For stop apache

sudo apachectl stop
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist 2>/dev/null

Run the below command to install nginx

brew install nginx

Then you can see the nginx in the browser with http://localhost:8080

For stopping nginx run

sudo nginx -s stop

For start nginx run

sudo nginx

To make a proxy in nginx. Go to the servers directory

cd /usr/local/nginx/servers

then create a server name example-proxy.conf with below configuration.

server {
    listen 80;
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://192.x.x.2;
    }
}

Nginx server block examples

Server block example for php website

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name dev-nginx.local;
    root /Users/ajitdas/php-site;
    location / {
        index index.html index.htm index.php ;
    }
    charset utf-8;
   
    # Pass PHP Scripts To FastCGI Server
    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9074;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
    }
}

Server block example for Wordpress with ssl

server {
    listen 80 default_server;
    listen 443 ssl http2;

    ssl_certificate /usr/local/etc/nginx/ssl/localhost.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /usr/local/etc/nginx/ssl/localhost.key;

    server_name test-wordpress.local;
    root /Users/ajitdas/wp-site;
    index index.php index.html index.htm;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$uri&$args;
    }
    charset utf-8;
    
    # Pass PHP Scripts To FastCGI Server
    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9074;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
    }
}

Server block example for Laravel

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name laravel-site.local;

    root /Users/ajitdas/laravel-site/public;
    index index.php index.html index.htm;

    location / {
         try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;
    }
    charset utf-8;
    
    # Pass PHP Scripts To FastCGI Server
    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9074;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
    }
}

If you have any question about how to install Nginx mac brew. Please make comment. We will help you.

How to install Nginx in your Mac with brew