Envoy 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?
Envoy
Cloud-native high-performance edge and service proxy
VS
Pangolin
Self-hosted tunneled reverse proxy with identity access
| Feature | Envoy | Pangolin |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C++ | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 28,735 | ★ 22,062 |
| First released | 2016 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Nginx, HAProxy | Cloudflare Tunnel |
Why pick each one
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
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 Envoy or Pangolin better?
Neither is universally better. Envoy has the larger community, while Pangolin is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Envoy and Pangolin free and open-source?
Yes. Envoy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Pangolin under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Envoy and Pangolin with Docker?
Envoy: yes. Pangolin: yes.