Envoy vs SafeLine
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
SafeLine
Self-hosted web application firewall with a web console
| Feature | Envoy | SafeLine |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C++ | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 28,735 | ★ 22,312 |
| First released | 2016 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Nginx, HAProxy | Cloudflare WAF |
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 SafeLine if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 22.3k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Envoy or SafeLine better?
Neither is universally better. Envoy has the larger community, while SafeLine is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Envoy and SafeLine free and open-source?
Yes. Envoy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and SafeLine under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Envoy and SafeLine with Docker?
Envoy: yes. SafeLine: yes.