Pi-hole vs Sozu
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?
Pi-hole
Blackhole for Internet advertisements with a GUI for management and
VS
Sozu
Hot-reconfigurable HTTP reverse proxy in Rust
| Feature | Pi-hole | Sozu |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | EUPL-1.2 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Shell | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 60,247 | ★ 3,715 |
| First released | 2026 | 2016 |
| Replaces | — | HAProxy, Nginx |
Why pick each one
Choose Pi-hole if…
- Released under the EUPL-1.2 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 60.2k GitHub stars
- Written in Shell
Choose Sozu if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.7k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
Frequently asked questions
Is Pi-hole or Sozu better?
Pi-hole is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Sozu if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Pi-hole and Sozu free and open-source?
Yes. Pi-hole is licensed under EUPL-1.2 and Sozu under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pi-hole and Sozu with Docker?
Pi-hole: yes. Sozu: yes.