Traefik
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysCloud-native reverse proxy and load balancer
Replaces HAProxy, AWS ELB
Best API Reverse Proxy & Gateways for self-hosting
The 29 best API reverse proxy & gateways you can self-host, ranked by community traction.
mitmproxy
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysInteractive HTTPS proxy for inspection and debugging
Replaces Charles Proxy, Fiddler
Kong Gateway
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysCloud-native, fast, scalable API gateway
Replaces AWS API Gateway, Apigee
Istio
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysFull-featured service mesh for traffic and security control
Replaces AWS App Mesh
Envoy
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysCloud-native high-performance edge and service proxy
Replaces Nginx, HAProxy
Pingora
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysRust framework to build fast, reliable network services
Replaces Nginx
Pangolin
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysSelf-hosted tunneled reverse proxy with identity access
Replaces Cloudflare Tunnel
Apache APISIX
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysDynamic, real-time, high-performance API gateway
Replaces Kong, AWS API Gateway
CrowdSec
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysCollaborative open-source intrusion prevention system
Replaces Cloudflare WAF, Fail2ban
cert-manager
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysAutomated TLS certificate management for Kubernetes
Replaces Certbot
OpenResty
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysScalable web platform extending Nginx with Lua
Replaces Nginx
Tyk
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysOpen-source API gateway and management platform
Replaces Apigee, AWS API Gateway
YARP
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysReverse proxy toolkit for building proxies in .NET
Replaces Nginx
ExternalDNS
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysSynchronize Kubernetes services with DNS providers
Replaces Route 53 manual records
Fabio
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysZero-config load balancer driven by Consul
Replaces HAProxy, Nginx
HAProxy
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysReliable, high-performance TCP/HTTP load balancer
Replaces F5 BIG-IP, AWS ELB
Emissary-ingress
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysKubernetes-native API gateway built on Envoy
Replaces AWS API Gateway, Kong
Kuma
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysUniversal service mesh for Kubernetes and VMs
Replaces Istio, Linkerd
Coraza WAF
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysOpen-source enterprise-grade web application firewall
Replaces ModSecurity, Cloudflare WAF
Sozu
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysHot-reconfigurable HTTP reverse proxy in Rust
Replaces HAProxy, Nginx
Skipper
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysHTTP router and reverse proxy for service composition
Replaces Nginx, Traefik
Gateway API
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysNext-generation Kubernetes traffic routing standard
Replaces Kubernetes Ingress
Sablier
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysScale services to zero and start them on demand
Replaces AWS Lambda
KrakenD
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysUltra-high-performance API gateway
Replaces AWS API Gateway, Kong
Angie
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysDrop-in nginx fork with extended features
Replaces nginx
gobetween
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysModern L4 load balancer and reverse proxy
Replaces HAProxy, NGINX Plus
caddy-l4
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysLayer 4 proxy module for the Caddy server
Replaces HAProxy
Gravitee API Management
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysOpen-source API management platform
Replaces Apigee, MuleSoft
HAProxy Data Plane API
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysREST API for dynamic HAProxy configuration
Replaces NGINX Plus API
No apps match these filters.
At a glance
| App | Deploy effort | Difficulty | Min. RAM | License | ★ Stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traefik | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 128 MB | MIT | 65,200 |
| mitmproxy | Under-an-hour setup | Easy | 256 MB | MIT | 45,545 |
| Kong Gateway | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | Apache-2.0 | 44,265 |
| Istio | Read-the-docs project | Hard | 1,024 MB | Apache-2.0 | 38,437 |
| Envoy | Under-an-hour setup | Hard | 512 MB | Apache-2.0 | 29,073 |
| Pingora | Read-the-docs project | Hard | 128 MB | Apache-2.0 | 27,615 |
| Pangolin | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | AGPL-3.0 | 23,085 |
| Apache APISIX | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | Apache-2.0 | 17,219 |
| CrowdSec | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 256 MB | MIT | 15,168 |
| cert-manager | Read-the-docs project | Medium | 256 MB | Apache-2.0 | 14,112 |
Quick picks
- Most adopted: Traefik (65,200 GitHub stars).
- Lightest footprint: Sablier (from 64 MB RAM, against 2,048 MB for the heaviest here).
- Licensing: 16 of 29 use Apache-2.0; check the rest individually if you plan to modify and redistribute.
Every option here is open-source and self-hostable, tagged API within the reverse proxy & gateways category. Deploy effort is graded from published container recipes, not vendor claims — see the methodology.