Ehco vs Istio
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?
Ehco
Network relay tool for forwarding traffic over many transports
VS
Istio
Full-featured service mesh for traffic and security control
| Feature | Ehco | Istio |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,286 | ★ 38,338 |
| First released | 2020 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Shadowsocks | AWS App Mesh |
Why pick each one
Choose Ehco if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Ehco or Istio better?
Neither is universally better. Istio has the larger community, while Ehco is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Ehco and Istio free and open-source?
Yes. Ehco is licensed under MIT and Istio under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Ehco and Istio with Docker?
Ehco: yes. Istio: check the project docs for container support.