Tinyauth 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?
Tinyauth
Simplest way to protect your apps with a login screen
VS
Traefik
Cloud-native reverse proxy and load balancer
| Feature | Tinyauth | Traefik |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 8,092 | ★ 64,330 |
| First released | 2024 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Cloudflare Access | HAProxy, AWS ELB |
Why pick each one
Choose Tinyauth if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 8.1k GitHub stars
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 Tinyauth or Traefik better?
Neither is universally better. Traefik has the larger community, while Tinyauth is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Tinyauth and Traefik free and open-source?
Yes. Tinyauth is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Traefik under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Tinyauth and Traefik with Docker?
Tinyauth: yes. Traefik: yes.