Fabio vs YARP
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 | YARP |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 91 · Excellent | 78 · Good |
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | C# |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,343 | ★ 9,616 |
| First released | 2015 | 2021 |
| Replaces | HAProxy, Nginx | Nginx |
What are Fabio and YARP?
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
YARP
YARP, short for Yet Another Reverse Proxy, is a Microsoft open-source toolkit for building fast, customizable reverse proxy servers using ASP.NET Core. Developers configure it in code or config files.
- Build custom reverse proxies
- ASP.NET Core based
- Dynamic configuration
- Load balancing and health checks
Fabio vs YARP: key differences
Fabio is written in Go, while YARP is built with C#. Fabio is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for YARP. Fabio is the more established project (first released 2015), while YARP arrived in 2021.
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 YARP if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 9.6k GitHub stars
- Written in C#
Frequently asked questions
Is Fabio or YARP better?
Neither is universally better. YARP has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Fabio and YARP free and open-source?
Yes. Fabio is licensed under MIT and YARP under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Fabio and YARP with Docker?
Fabio: yes. YARP: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Fabio or YARP?
Fabio has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for YARP. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.