Fabio 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 | Fabio | Skipper |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 91 · Excellent | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | kubernetes, docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,342 | ★ 3,329 |
| First released | 2015 | 2016 |
| Replaces | HAProxy, Nginx | Nginx, Traefik |
What are Fabio and Skipper?
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
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
Fabio vs Skipper: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — MIT for Fabio versus Apache-2.0 for Skipper. Fabio has the considerably larger community, at 7,342 GitHub stars versus 3,329.
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
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 Fabio or Skipper better?
Neither is universally better. Fabio has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Fabio and Skipper free and open-source?
Yes. Fabio is licensed under MIT and Skipper under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Fabio and Skipper with Docker?
Fabio: yes. Skipper: yes.