Varnish Cache vs Apache Traffic Server
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?
Varnish Cache
High-performance HTTP accelerator and caching proxy
VS
Apache Traffic Server
Fast, scalable caching proxy server
| Feature | Varnish Cache | Apache Traffic Server |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, bare-metal | docker, binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,050 | ★ 1,972 |
| First released | 2006 | 2009 |
| Replaces | Cloudflare, Squid | Varnish, Squid |
Why pick each one
Choose Varnish Cache if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
Choose Apache Traffic Server if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
Frequently asked questions
Is Varnish Cache or Apache Traffic Server better?
Neither is universally better. Varnish Cache has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Varnish Cache and Apache Traffic Server free and open-source?
Yes. Varnish Cache is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Apache Traffic Server under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Varnish Cache and Apache Traffic Server with Docker?
Varnish Cache: yes. Apache Traffic Server: yes.