Selecting and configuring a server (Apache vs Nginx)?

Question

Nginx

Please tell me, I can not decide on the Apache vs Nginx server.
From what I read on the net, I realized that one is for Statistics, the other for Dynamics, in my opinion I need it for statistics.
We need a server that sends files at the request of the client (zip size 5-300 Mb), about 500 files.
Host it on a virtual server.
There is no site as such, not counting the admin panel through which I will add users, and these are several PHP files and a database.
And another question is whether it is worth installing the Control Panel, for example, the free VestaCP, it is only needed for the initial configuration of phpmyadmin, file manager and FTP (for uploading files to the server), it is clear that it is better to set everything up manually, but for me it is still difficult.
I wrote PHP scripts, created a database, it seems to work on a local Openserver.

Answer 1

The need for a control panel depends on:
1. Whether the panel itself is needed.
2. Do I need all the software that she installs with herself.
3. Is there a shortage of resources on the server, if this is already a hurdy-gurdy with 512 m.b. memory, the panel with all the software there will be out of topic.
When installing vesta and default configs, files will be distributed by nginx anyway, when creating a web domain, this option is enabled by default.
In the settings, you can completely turn off apache for a specific domain.