Envoy vs Shadowsocks-libev
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
Shadowsocks-libev
Lightweight encrypted SOCKS5 proxy
| Feature | Envoy | Shadowsocks-libev |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C++ | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | bare-metal, source, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 28,735 | ★ 16,181 |
| First released | 2016 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Nginx, HAProxy | commercial VPN proxies |
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
Frequently asked questions
Is Envoy or Shadowsocks-libev better?
Neither is universally better. Envoy has the larger community, while Shadowsocks-libev is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Envoy and Shadowsocks-libev free and open-source?
Yes. Envoy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Shadowsocks-libev under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Envoy and Shadowsocks-libev with Docker?
Envoy: yes. Shadowsocks-libev: yes.