3proxy vs Traefik
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted reverse proxy & gateways options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
3proxy
Tiny multi-protocol proxy server suite
VS
Traefik
Cloud-native reverse proxy and load balancer
| Feature | 3proxy | Traefik |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | C | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 16 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source, docker | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,379 | ★ 64,330 |
| First released | 2002 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Squid | HAProxy, AWS ELB |
Why pick each one
Choose Traefik if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 64.3k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is 3proxy or Traefik better?
Neither is universally better. Traefik has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are 3proxy and Traefik free and open-source?
Yes. 3proxy is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Traefik under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run 3proxy and Traefik with Docker?
3proxy: yes. Traefik: yes.