OpenResty vs Skipper
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 | Skipper |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, bare-metal | kubernetes, docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,045 | ★ 3,329 |
| First released | 2011 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Nginx | Nginx, Traefik |
What are OpenResty and Skipper?
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
Skipper
Skipper is an open-source HTTP router and reverse proxy from Zalando, designed for service composition and used as a Kubernetes ingress controller. It supports flexible route filters.
- Flexible route predicates
- Kubernetes ingress support
- Rich filter chain
- Used at Zalando scale
OpenResty vs Skipper: key differences
OpenResty is written in C, while Skipper is built with Go. Licensing differs — BSD-2-Clause for OpenResty versus Apache-2.0 for Skipper. OpenResty is the more established project (first released 2011), while Skipper arrived in 2016. OpenResty has the considerably larger community, at 14,045 GitHub stars versus 3,329.
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 Skipper if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Active community (3.3k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenResty or Skipper better?
Neither is universally better. OpenResty has the larger community, while Skipper is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are OpenResty and Skipper free and open-source?
Yes. OpenResty is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Skipper under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run OpenResty and Skipper with Docker?
OpenResty: yes. Skipper: yes.