Authelia vs Envoy
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?
Authelia
Authentication and authorization server for reverse proxies
VS
Envoy
Cloud-native high-performance edge and service proxy
| Feature | Authelia | Envoy |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 28,514 | ★ 28,735 |
| First released | 2017 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Okta, Cloudflare Access | Nginx, HAProxy |
Why pick each one
Choose Authelia if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 28.5k GitHub stars
Choose Envoy if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 28.7k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Authelia or Envoy better?
Neither is universally better. Envoy has the larger community, while Authelia is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Authelia and Envoy free and open-source?
Yes. Authelia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Envoy under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Authelia and Envoy with Docker?
Authelia: yes. Envoy: yes.