Authelia vs Pangolin
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
Pangolin
Self-hosted tunneled reverse proxy with identity access
| Feature | Authelia | Pangolin |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 28,514 | ★ 22,062 |
| First released | 2017 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Okta, Cloudflare Access | Cloudflare Tunnel |
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 Pangolin if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 22.1k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Authelia or Pangolin better?
Neither is universally better. Authelia has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Authelia and Pangolin free and open-source?
Yes. Authelia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Pangolin under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Authelia and Pangolin with Docker?
Authelia: yes. Pangolin: yes.