OpenResty vs Pingora
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted reverse proxy & gateways options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | OpenResty | Pingora |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 97 · Excellent |
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,045 | ★ 27,517 |
| First released | 2011 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Nginx | Nginx |
What are OpenResty and Pingora?
OpenResty
OpenResty is a full-fledged web platform that bundles Nginx with LuaJIT and many libraries, enabling powerful programmable proxies and gateways. It is the foundation for several API gateways.
- Nginx plus LuaJIT scripting
- Programmable request handling
- Foundation for API gateways
- High performance
Pingora
Pingora is an open-source Rust framework from Cloudflare for building fast, secure, and programmable proxies and network services. It powers a large share of Cloudflare's traffic.
- Programmable proxy framework
- Memory-safe Rust core
- High performance
- Battle-tested at Cloudflare
OpenResty vs Pingora: key differences
OpenResty is written in C, while Pingora is built with Rust. Licensing differs — BSD-2-Clause for OpenResty versus Apache-2.0 for Pingora. OpenResty is the more established project (first released 2011), while Pingora arrived in 2024. OpenResty lists first-class Docker deployment; Pingora does not.
Why pick each one
Choose OpenResty if…
- Very high performance
- Programmable with Lua
- Battle-tested Nginx core
Watch out for
- Lua knowledge required
- Config more complex than Nginx
Choose Pingora if…
- Battle-tested at Cloudflare
- Excellent performance
- Memory-safe Rust
Watch out for
- Rust coding required
- Not a turnkey proxy
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenResty or Pingora better?
Neither is universally better. Pingora has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are OpenResty and Pingora free and open-source?
Yes. OpenResty is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Pingora under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run OpenResty and Pingora with Docker?
OpenResty: yes. Pingora: check the project docs for container support.