dae vs Traefik
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?
dae
eBPF-based transparent proxy with traffic splitting
VS
Traefik
Cloud-native reverse proxy and load balancer
| Feature | dae | Traefik |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,058 | ★ 64,330 |
| First released | 2023 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Clash | HAProxy, AWS ELB |
Why pick each one
Choose dae if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Mature project with 6.1k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose Traefik if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 64.3k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is dae or Traefik better?
Traefik is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider dae if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are dae and Traefik free and open-source?
Yes. dae is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Traefik under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run dae and Traefik with Docker?
dae: check the project docs for container support. Traefik: yes.