SmartDNS vs Traefik
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?
SmartDNS
Local DNS server that picks the fastest results
VS
Traefik
Cloud-native reverse proxy and load balancer
| Feature | SmartDNS | Traefik |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | C | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 11,183 | ★ 64,330 |
| First released | 2018 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Pi-hole, dnsmasq | HAProxy, AWS ELB |
Why pick each one
Choose SmartDNS if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Mature project with 11.2k GitHub stars
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Choose Traefik if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 64.3k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is SmartDNS or Traefik better?
Neither is universally better. Traefik has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are SmartDNS and Traefik free and open-source?
Yes. SmartDNS is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Traefik under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run SmartDNS and Traefik with Docker?
SmartDNS: check the project docs for container support. Traefik: yes.