Fabio 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?
Fabio
Zero-config load balancer driven by Consul
VS
sslh
Protocol multiplexer that shares one port between services
| Feature | Fabio | sslh |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Go | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,334 | ★ 5,098 |
| First released | 2015 | 2008 |
| Replaces | HAProxy, Nginx | HAProxy |
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 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 Fabio or sslh better?
Neither is universally better. Fabio 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 Fabio and sslh free and open-source?
Yes. Fabio is licensed under MIT and sslh under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Fabio and sslh with Docker?
Fabio: yes. sslh: yes.