Pingora vs SafeLine
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?
Pingora
Rust framework to build fast, reliable network services
VS
SafeLine
Self-hosted web application firewall with a web console
| Feature | Pingora | SafeLine |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Rust | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 27,153 | ★ 22,312 |
| First released | 2024 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Nginx | Cloudflare WAF |
Why pick each one
Choose Pingora if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Mature project with 27.2k GitHub stars
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose SafeLine if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 22.3k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Pingora or SafeLine better?
Neither is universally better. Pingora has the larger community, while SafeLine is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Pingora and SafeLine free and open-source?
Yes. Pingora is licensed under Apache-2.0 and SafeLine under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pingora and SafeLine with Docker?
Pingora: check the project docs for container support. SafeLine: yes.