Self-hosted Edge & Traffic (Reverse Proxy, Load Balancing, Web Servers) tools

Caddy is a fast, extensible Go web server and reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS (ACME), HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, and HTTP/3 support, and a JSON config API.

Apache-2.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Caddy Cloud+8

Traefik Proxy is a dynamic reverse proxy and load balancer that auto-discovers services from Docker, Kubernetes, and other providers, with HTTPS, routing, and observability built in.

MITActively maintained

Alternative to:

Traefik Cloud+7

Kong Gateway is a high-performance, cloud-native API gateway for routing, securing, and observing API traffic, with an extensible plugin system and Kubernetes support.

Apache-2.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Amazon API Gateway+7

Nginx Proxy Manager is a web-based admin panel for managing Nginx reverse proxy hosts, redirects, streams, and Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates via Docker.

MITActively maintained

Alternative to:

NGINX Management Suite+6

NGINX is a high-performance HTTP server and reverse proxy with caching, load balancing, TLS termination, and TCP/UDP proxying via a modular architecture.

BSD-2-ClauseActively maintained

Alternative to:

NGINX Management Suite+2

Open-source identity-based remote access platform combining WireGuard VPN and tunneled reverse proxy access with granular zero-trust controls.

Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Cloudflare Access+16

Anubis is a lightweight web AI firewall that protects sites from AI crawlers and scraping bots using configurable request challenges and bot policies.

MITActively maintained

Alternative to:

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall (WAF)+10

CLI tool to create Cloudflare Tunnels and route traffic through Cloudflare’s edge.

Apache-2.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

ngrok+10

CapRover is an open-source platform to deploy, manage and scale apps using Docker and nginx with a web UI and CLI, automatic SSL, one-click databases and clustering support.

Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Coolify Cloud+19

LibreSpeed is a lightweight, open-source, self-hosted internet speed test implemented in JavaScript. It measures download, upload, ping and jitter and supports PHP/Node backends and Docker deployment.

LGPL-3.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Speedtest by Ookla+3

OAuth2 Proxy is a reverse proxy and middleware that protects web apps with OAuth2/OIDC login and forwards authenticated user identity to upstream services.

MITActively maintained

Alternative to:

Cloudflare Access+14

Self-hosted web interface to manage Nginx configs, reload safely, issue Let’s Encrypt certificates, view logs, monitor server stats, and manage multiple nodes.

AGPL-3.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

NGINX Management Suite+4

BunkerWeb is an open-source WAF and NGINX-based reverse proxy to protect web apps and APIs with HTTPS automation, security policies, and extensible plugins.

AGPL-3.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall (WAF)+10

Tyk Gateway is an open source, cloud-native API gateway for securing, managing, and scaling REST, GraphQL, gRPC, and TCP APIs with auth, rate limits, and policies.

Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Amazon API Gateway+6

Tinyauth is a lightweight auth middleware that adds a login screen, OAuth, or LDAP authentication in front of your apps via common reverse proxies.

AGPL-3.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Cloudflare Access+17

Self-hosted transparent bastion host and PAM for SSH, HTTPS, MySQL and Postgres with RBAC, session recording, and SSO/2FA—no client-side software required.

Apache-2.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Teleport+7

HAProxy is a fast, reliable reverse proxy and load balancer for TCP and HTTP applications, providing high availability, TLS termination, health checks, and traffic routing.

Actively maintained

Alternative to:

HAProxy Enterprise+10

Lura is a stateless, high-performance API gateway framework for building reverse proxies that aggregate, transform, and secure backend APIs via middleware and plugins.

Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Amazon API Gateway+9

Cosmos Cloud is a security-focused self-hosting platform that provides an app store, reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS, SSO/MFA, container management, backups, and monitoring.

Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Cloudron+18

Tinyproxy is a small, efficient HTTP/HTTPS proxy daemon for POSIX systems, designed for low resource usage with access controls, filtering, and optional reverse/transparent proxying.

GPL-2.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Charles Proxy+9

A general-purpose HTTP reverse proxy and forwarding tool for homelabs, offering web UI, ACME/TLS, stream proxy, plugins and realtime monitoring.

AGPL-3.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

ngrok+16

Pomerium is an identity-aware access proxy that provides zero trust, per-request authorization to internal web apps and services without a traditional VPN.

Apache-2.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Cloudflare Access+12

sish is an open-source Serveo/ngrok alternative that exposes local HTTP(S), WebSockets, and TCP services to the internet using SSH reverse tunnels.

MITActively maintained

Alternative to:

ngrok+3

OPNsense is an open source FreeBSD-based firewall and routing platform with a web GUI, API, VPN, traffic shaping, and security features for networks and homelabs.

BSD-2-ClauseActively maintained

Alternative to:

Fortinet FortiGate+12

13 Feet Ladder is a self-hosted 12ft.io-style server that retrieves readable article pages by requesting them as a search crawler, helping reduce paywalls and clutter.

MITActively maintained

Alternative to:

ngrok

High-performance reverse proxy and container orchestrator with Web UI, automatic Docker/Podman route discovery, idle-sleep, access control, and automated Let's Encrypt support.

Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Cloudflare Tunnel+19

High-performance reverse proxy for self-hosted apps with Web UI, Docker/Podman auto-routing, HTTPS via Let's Encrypt, access control, and OIDC/ForwardAuth support.

Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Traefik Cloud+5

Varnish Cache is a high-performance HTTP reverse proxy cache for accelerating web applications and APIs with flexible caching rules and detailed request logging.

Slowing down

Alternative to:

Cloudflare CDN+5

LinuxServer.io SWAG is a Docker image bundling Nginx reverse proxy, ACME certificate automation (Let’s Encrypt/ZeroSSL), optional PHP, and fail2ban intrusion prevention.

GPL-3.0Actively maintained

Alternative to:

Apache HTTP Server+9

Algernon is a small, self-contained Go web server with built-in Lua/Teal scripting, Markdown and template rendering, HTTP/2+HTTP/3 (QUIC), and multiple database backends.

BSD-3-ClauseActively maintained

Alternative to:

Apache HTTP Server