relayd vs Pi-hole
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?
relayd
OpenBSD load balancer and relay daemon
VS
Pi-hole
Blackhole for Internet advertisements with a GUI for management and
| Feature | relayd | Pi-hole |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | ISC | EUPL-1.2 |
| Language | C | Shell |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,851 | ★ 60,247 |
| First released | 2006 | 2026 |
| Replaces | HAProxy, F5 BIG-IP | — |
Why pick each one
Choose Pi-hole if…
- Released under the EUPL-1.2 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 60.2k GitHub stars
- Written in Shell
Frequently asked questions
Is relayd or Pi-hole better?
Pi-hole is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider relayd if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are relayd and Pi-hole free and open-source?
Yes. relayd is licensed under ISC and Pi-hole under EUPL-1.2. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run relayd and Pi-hole with Docker?
relayd: check the project docs for container support. Pi-hole: yes.