CrowdSec 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?
CrowdSec
Collaborative open-source intrusion prevention system
VS
Envoy
Cloud-native high-performance edge and service proxy
| Feature | CrowdSec | Envoy |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,461 | ★ 28,735 |
| First released | 2020 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Cloudflare WAF, Fail2ban | Nginx, HAProxy |
Why pick each one
Choose CrowdSec if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 14.5k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
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 CrowdSec or Envoy better?
Neither is universally better. Envoy has the larger community, while CrowdSec is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are CrowdSec and Envoy free and open-source?
Yes. CrowdSec is licensed under MIT and Envoy under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run CrowdSec and Envoy with Docker?
CrowdSec: yes. Envoy: yes.