SHSelfHostIndex

Ingress-NGINX vs Shadowsocks-libev

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted reverse proxy & gateways options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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IN Ingress-NGINX Kubernetes ingress controller using NGINX VS SH Shadowsocks-libev Lightweight encrypted SOCKS5 proxy
FeatureIngress-NGINXShadowsocks-libev
CategoryReverse Proxy & GatewaysReverse Proxy & Gateways
LicenseApache-2.0GPL-3.0
LanguageGoC
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB32 MB
Deploymentkubernetes, helmbare-metal, source, docker
GitHub stars★ 19,485★ 16,181
First released20162014
ReplacesAWS ALB Ingresscommercial VPN proxies

Why pick each one

Choose Ingress-NGINX if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
  • Mature project with 19.5k GitHub stars
  • Written in Go
Ingress-NGINX details

Choose Shadowsocks-libev if…

  • Very efficient
  • Good for constrained devices
Shadowsocks-libev details

Frequently asked questions

Is Ingress-NGINX or Shadowsocks-libev better?

Neither is universally better. Ingress-NGINX has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Ingress-NGINX and Shadowsocks-libev free and open-source?

Yes. Ingress-NGINX is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Shadowsocks-libev under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Ingress-NGINX and Shadowsocks-libev with Docker?

Ingress-NGINX: check the project docs for container support. Shadowsocks-libev: yes.

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