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.
Not the right match-up?
Sozu
Hot-reconfigurable HTTP reverse proxy in Rust
VS
Traefik
Cloud-native reverse proxy and load balancer
| Feature | Sozu | Traefik |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | ★ 3,715 | ★ 64,330 |
| First released | 2016 | 2015 |
| Replaces | HAProxy, Nginx | HAProxy, AWS ELB |
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…
- 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 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.