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.
Not the right match-up?
Nginx
High-performance web server and reverse proxy
VS
Shadowsocks-libev
Lightweight encrypted SOCKS5 proxy
| Feature | Nginx | Shadowsocks-libev |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, bare-metal | bare-metal, source, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 31,360 | ★ 16,181 |
| First released | 2004 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Apache, IIS | commercial VPN proxies |
Why pick each one
Choose Nginx if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 31.4k GitHub stars
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is Nginx or Shadowsocks-libev better?
Neither is universally better. Nginx has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Nginx and Shadowsocks-libev free and open-source?
Yes. Nginx is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Shadowsocks-libev under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Nginx and Shadowsocks-libev with Docker?
Nginx: yes. Shadowsocks-libev: yes.