CrowdSec vs Pingora
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
Pingora
Rust framework to build fast, reliable network services
| Feature | CrowdSec | Pingora |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,461 | ★ 27,153 |
| First released | 2020 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Cloudflare WAF, Fail2ban | Nginx |
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 Pingora if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Mature project with 27.2k GitHub stars
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is CrowdSec or Pingora better?
Neither is universally better. Pingora 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 Pingora free and open-source?
Yes. CrowdSec is licensed under MIT and Pingora under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run CrowdSec and Pingora with Docker?
CrowdSec: yes. Pingora: check the project docs for container support.