Envoy vs sslh
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
sslh
Protocol multiplexer that shares one port between services
| Feature | Envoy | sslh |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | C++ | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 28,735 | ★ 5,098 |
| First released | 2016 | 2008 |
| Replaces | Nginx, HAProxy | 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 sslh if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 5.1k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Envoy or sslh better?
Neither is universally better. Envoy has the larger community, while sslh is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Envoy and sslh free and open-source?
Yes. Envoy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sslh under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Envoy and sslh with Docker?
Envoy: yes. sslh: yes.