Angie vs River
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted reverse proxy & gateways options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Angie | River |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 17 · At risk |
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,575 | ★ 2,353 |
| First released | 2022 | 2024 |
| Replaces | nginx | nginx, HAProxy |
What are Angie and River?
Angie
Angie is a web server and reverse proxy created by former nginx developers, fully compatible with nginx configuration. It adds features such as dynamic upstream configuration and a built-in monitoring console.
- nginx-compatible config
- Dynamic upstream API
- Built-in status console
- Active maintenance
River
River is a reverse-proxy application built on Cloudflare's Pingora engine, providing a configurable binary for HTTP proxying and load balancing. It is self-hosted and configured through files.
- Pingora-based
- Load balancing
- File-driven config
- Memory-safe Rust
Angie vs River: key differences
Angie is written in C, while River is built with Rust. Licensing differs — BSD-2-Clause for Angie versus Apache-2.0 for River. River is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Angie. Angie is the more established project (first released 2022), while River arrived in 2024. Angie lists first-class Docker deployment; River does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Angie if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
Choose River if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Active community (2.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Angie or River better?
Neither is universally better. Angie has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Angie and River free and open-source?
Yes. Angie is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and River under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Angie and River with Docker?
Angie: yes. River: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Angie or River?
River has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Angie. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.