Skipper vs Tengine
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted reverse proxy & gateways options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Skipper | Tengine |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 88 · Excellent | 75 · Good |
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | Go | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | kubernetes, docker, binary | docker, binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,329 | ★ 13,373 |
| First released | 2016 | 2011 |
| Replaces | Nginx, Traefik | Nginx |
What are Skipper and Tengine?
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
Tengine
Tengine is a web server originated by Taobao based on Nginx, adding advanced features for high-traffic websites such as dynamic module loading and enhanced load balancing. It is fully Nginx compatible.
- Nginx-compatible server
- Dynamic module loading
- Enhanced load balancing
- Proven at large scale
Skipper vs Tengine: key differences
Skipper is written in Go, while Tengine is built with C. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Skipper versus BSD-2-Clause for Tengine. Tengine is the more established project (first released 2011), while Skipper arrived in 2016. Tengine has the considerably larger community, at 13,373 GitHub stars versus 3,329.
Why pick each one
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)
Choose Tengine if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 13.4k GitHub stars
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is Skipper or Tengine better?
Neither is universally better. Tengine 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 Skipper and Tengine free and open-source?
Yes. Skipper is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Tengine under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Skipper and Tengine with Docker?
Skipper: yes. Tengine: yes.