SHSelfHostIndex

Fabio vs OpenResty

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?
FA Fabio Zero-config load balancer driven by Consul VS OP OpenResty Scalable web platform extending Nginx with Lua
FeatureFabioOpenResty
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score91 · Excellent87 · Excellent
CategoryReverse Proxy & GatewaysReverse Proxy & Gateways
LicenseMITBSD-2-Clause
LanguageGoC
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM128 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarydocker, binary, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 7,343★ 14,045
First released20152011
ReplacesHAProxy, NginxNginx

What are Fabio and OpenResty?

Fabio

Fabio is a fast, modern, zero-configuration load balancing HTTP and TCP router that automatically updates routes from Consul. Services register themselves with no manual configuration.

  • Zero-config routing
  • Consul service discovery
  • HTTP and TCP load balancing
  • Hot route updates

OpenResty

OpenResty is a full-fledged web platform that bundles Nginx with LuaJIT and many libraries, enabling powerful programmable proxies and gateways. It is the foundation for several API gateways.

  • Nginx plus LuaJIT scripting
  • Programmable request handling
  • Foundation for API gateways
  • High performance

Fabio vs OpenResty: key differences

Fabio is written in Go, while OpenResty is built with C. Licensing differs — MIT for Fabio versus BSD-2-Clause for OpenResty. OpenResty is the more established project (first released 2011), while Fabio arrived in 2015.

Why pick each one

Choose Fabio if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 7.3k GitHub stars
  • Written in Go
Fabio details

Choose OpenResty if…

  • Very high performance
  • Programmable with Lua
  • Battle-tested Nginx core

Watch out for

  • Lua knowledge required
  • Config more complex than Nginx
OpenResty details

Frequently asked questions

Is Fabio or OpenResty better?

Neither is universally better. OpenResty has the larger community, while Fabio is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Fabio and OpenResty free and open-source?

Yes. Fabio is licensed under MIT and OpenResty under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Fabio and OpenResty with Docker?

Fabio: yes. OpenResty: yes.

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