Caddy
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysFast, multi-platform web server with automatic HTTPS
Replaces Nginx, Apache
Best Plugins Reverse Proxy & Gateways for self-hosting
The 11 best Plugins reverse proxy & gateways you can self-host, ranked by community traction.
Kong Gateway
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysCloud-native, fast, scalable API gateway
Replaces AWS API Gateway, Apigee
Apache APISIX
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysDynamic, real-time, high-performance API gateway
Replaces Kong, AWS API Gateway
CoreDNS
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysFlexible, plugin-based DNS server
Replaces BIND, dnsmasq
OpenResty
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysScalable web platform extending Nginx with Lua
Replaces Nginx
Tengine
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysNginx-derived web server with extra features
Replaces Nginx
Apache HTTP Server
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysThe world's most widely used web server
Replaces Nginx, IIS
mosdns
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysFlexible plugin-based forwarding DNS server
Replaces AdGuard DNS
Apache Traffic Server
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysFast, scalable caching proxy server
Replaces Varnish, Squid
Pingap
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysReverse proxy built on Cloudflare's Pingora framework
Replaces nginx
Traefik Geoblock
Reverse Proxy & GatewaysGeo-blocking middleware plugin for Traefik
Replaces Cloudflare WAF
No apps match these filters.
At a glance
| App | Deploy effort | Difficulty | Min. RAM | License | ★ Stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caddy | ≈5-minute setup | Easy | 64 MB | Apache-2.0 | 77,932 |
| Kong Gateway | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | Apache-2.0 | 44,265 |
| Apache APISIX | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | Apache-2.0 | 17,219 |
| CoreDNS | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 128 MB | Apache-2.0 | 14,367 |
| OpenResty | Under-an-hour setup | Hard | 128 MB | BSD-2-Clause | 14,070 |
| Tengine | Under-an-hour setup | Hard | 128 MB | BSD-2-Clause | 13,390 |
| Apache HTTP Server | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 128 MB | Apache-2.0 | 4,038 |
| mosdns | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 64 MB | GPL-3.0 | 3,758 |
| Apache Traffic Server | Under-an-hour setup | Hard | 512 MB | Apache-2.0 | 1,995 |
| Pingap | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 64 MB | Apache-2.0 | 1,395 |
Quick picks
- Most adopted: Caddy (77,932 GitHub stars).
- Lightest footprint: Caddy (from 64 MB RAM, against 512 MB for the heaviest here).
- Fastest to deploy: Caddy (verified single-container compose).
- Licensing: 7 of 11 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 Plugins within the reverse proxy & gateways category. Deploy effort is graded from published container recipes, not vendor claims — see the methodology.