Envoy vs River
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
River
Configurable reverse proxy from the Pingora project
| Feature | Envoy | River |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C++ | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 28,735 | ★ 2,351 |
| First released | 2016 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Nginx, HAProxy | nginx, HAProxy |
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 River if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Active community (2.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Envoy or River better?
Neither is universally better. Envoy has the larger community, while River is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Envoy and River free and open-source?
Yes. Envoy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and River under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Envoy and River with Docker?
Envoy: yes. River: check the project docs for container support.