Envoy vs Skipper
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted reverse proxy & gateways options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Envoy | Skipper |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 98 · Excellent | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C++ | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | kubernetes, docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 28,983 | ★ 3,329 |
| First released | 2016 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Nginx, HAProxy | Nginx, Traefik |
What are Envoy and Skipper?
Envoy
Envoy is a high-performance, open-source edge and service proxy designed for cloud-native applications and service meshes. It offers advanced load balancing, observability, and dynamic configuration.
- Service mesh data plane
- Dynamic xDS configuration
- Rich observability
- Advanced load balancing
Skipper
Skipper is an open-source HTTP router and reverse proxy from Zalando, designed for service composition and used as a Kubernetes ingress controller. It supports flexible route filters.
- Flexible route predicates
- Kubernetes ingress support
- Rich filter chain
- Used at Zalando scale
Envoy vs Skipper: key differences
Envoy is written in C++, while Skipper is built with Go. Skipper is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Envoy. Envoy has the considerably larger community, at 28,983 GitHub stars versus 3,329.
Why pick each one
Choose Envoy if…
- Advanced load balancing
- Dynamic configuration API
- Deep observability features
Watch out for
- Steep learning curve
- Verbose YAML configuration
- Heavy for simple setups
Choose Skipper if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Active community (3.3k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Envoy or Skipper better?
Neither is universally better. Envoy has the larger community, while Skipper is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Envoy and Skipper free and open-source?
Yes. Envoy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Skipper under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Envoy and Skipper with Docker?
Envoy: yes. Skipper: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Envoy or Skipper?
Skipper has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Envoy. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.