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.
Not the right match-up?
OpenResty
Scalable web platform extending Nginx with Lua
VS
Skipper
HTTP router and reverse proxy for service composition
| Feature | OpenResty | Skipper |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | ★ 13,988 | ★ 3,311 |
| First released | 2011 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Nginx | Nginx, Traefik |
Why pick each one
Choose OpenResty if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 14k GitHub stars
- Written in C
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.