Anubis vs Istio
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?
Anubis
Proof-of-work proxy to block AI scraper bots
VS
Istio
Full-featured service mesh for traffic and security control
| Feature | Anubis | Istio |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 21,230 | ★ 38,338 |
| First released | 2025 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Cloudflare Bot Management | AWS App Mesh |
Why pick each one
Choose Anubis if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 21.2k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Anubis or Istio better?
Neither is universally better. Istio has the larger community, while Anubis is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Anubis and Istio free and open-source?
Yes. Anubis is licensed under MIT and Istio under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Anubis and Istio with Docker?
Anubis: yes. Istio: check the project docs for container support.