Sozu 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.
Traefik
Cloud-native reverse proxy and load balancer
| Feature | Sozu | Traefik |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 88 · Excellent | 100 · Excellent |
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Rust | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,734 | ★ 64,942 |
| First released | 2016 | 2015 |
| Replaces | HAProxy, Nginx | HAProxy, AWS ELB |
What are Sozu and Traefik?
Sozu
Sozu is an open-source HTTP reverse proxy written in Rust that can be reconfigured at runtime without dropping connections. It is built for safety and zero-downtime configuration changes.
- Hot configuration reload
- Memory-safe Rust core
- Zero-downtime changes
- Runtime control API
Traefik
Traefik is a modern reverse proxy and load balancer that automatically discovers services and configures routing. It integrates natively with Docker, Kubernetes, and other orchestrators.
- Automatic service discovery
- Native Docker and Kubernetes support
- Let's Encrypt integration
- Live configuration reload
Sozu vs Traefik: key differences
Sozu is written in Rust, while Traefik is built with Go. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Sozu versus MIT for Traefik. Traefik has the considerably larger community, at 64,942 GitHub stars versus 3,734.
Why pick each one
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
Choose Traefik if…
- Automatic service discovery
- Built-in Let's Encrypt
- First-class Docker support
Watch out for
- Configuration learning curve
- Debugging can be opaque
Frequently asked questions
Is Sozu or Traefik better?
Traefik 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 Sozu and Traefik free and open-source?
Yes. Sozu is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Traefik under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Sozu and Traefik with Docker?
Sozu: yes. Traefik: yes.