Tengine 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?
Tengine
Nginx-derived web server with extra features
VS
Traefik
Cloud-native reverse proxy and load balancer
| Feature | Tengine | Traefik |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Language | C | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,323 | ★ 64,330 |
| First released | 2011 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Nginx | HAProxy, AWS ELB |
Why pick each one
Choose Tengine if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 13.3k GitHub stars
- Written in C
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 Tengine or Traefik better?
Traefik is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Tengine if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Tengine and Traefik free and open-source?
Yes. Tengine is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Traefik under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Tengine and Traefik with Docker?
Tengine: yes. Traefik: yes.