River vs sslh
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?
River
Configurable reverse proxy from the Pingora project
VS
sslh
Protocol multiplexer that shares one port between services
| Feature | River | sslh |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Rust | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,351 | ★ 5,098 |
| First released | 2024 | 2008 |
| Replaces | nginx, HAProxy | HAProxy |
Why pick each one
Choose River if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Active community (2.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Choose sslh if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 5.1k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is River or sslh better?
sslh is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider River if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are River and sslh free and open-source?
Yes. River is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sslh under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run River and sslh with Docker?
River: check the project docs for container support. sslh: yes.