relayd vs Traefik
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted reverse proxy & gateways options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Traefik
Cloud-native reverse proxy and load balancer
| Feature | relayd | Traefik |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 86 · Excellent | 100 · Excellent |
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | ISC | MIT |
| Language | C | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,882 | ★ 64,931 |
| First released | 2006 | 2015 |
| Replaces | HAProxy, F5 BIG-IP | HAProxy, AWS ELB |
What are relayd and Traefik?
relayd
relayd is OpenBSD's daemon for relaying and load-balancing TCP connections, supporting application-layer filtering and SSL/TLS acceleration. It integrates closely with the pf packet filter.
- TCP load balancing
- Application-layer filtering
- TLS acceleration
- pf integration
Traefik
Traefik is a modern reverse proxy and load balancer that automatically discovers services and configures routing. It integrates natively with Docker, Kubernetes, and other orchestrators.
- Automatic service discovery
- Native Docker and Kubernetes support
- Let's Encrypt integration
- Live configuration reload
relayd vs Traefik: key differences
Relayd is written in C, while Traefik is built with Go. Licensing differs — ISC for relayd versus MIT for Traefik. Relayd is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Traefik. Relayd is the more established project (first released 2006), while Traefik arrived in 2015. Traefik has the considerably larger community, at 64,931 GitHub stars versus 3,882. Traefik lists first-class Docker deployment; relayd does not.
Why pick each one
Choose relayd if…
- Tightly integrated with OpenBSD
- Very lightweight
Watch out for
- OpenBSD focused
- Terse configuration
Choose Traefik if…
- Automatic service discovery
- Built-in Let's Encrypt
- First-class Docker support
Watch out for
- Configuration learning curve
- Debugging can be opaque
Frequently asked questions
Is relayd or Traefik better?
Traefik 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 Traefik free and open-source?
Yes. relayd is licensed under ISC and Traefik under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run relayd and Traefik with Docker?
relayd: check the project docs for container support. Traefik: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, relayd or Traefik?
relayd has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Traefik. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.