head to head · open source
nginx-proxy vs docktail
nginx-proxy has 19,932 GitHub stars, 3,038 forks, 327 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. docktail has 1,287 stars, 49 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. nginx-proxy leads on adoption by 1,449% (19,932 vs 1,287 stars). nginx-proxy is written in Python under MIT; docktail is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. nginx-proxy has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, docktail 4%. docktail was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (docker, reverse-proxy), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| nginx-proxy | docktail | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 49 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nginx-proxy if
- You weight community size — 20K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick docktail if
- You want the docktail feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and docktail fits your workflow better
About nginx-proxy
nginx proxy nginx proxy sets up a container running nginx and docker gen. docker gen generates reverse proxy configs for nginx and reloads nginx when containers are started and stopped. See Automated Nginx Reverse Proxy for Docker for why you might want to use this. Usage To run it: Then start any containers (here an nginx container) you want proxied with an env var VIRTUAL HOST=subdomain.yourdomain.com Provided your DNS is setup to resolve foo.bar.com to the host running nginx proxy, a request to will then be routed to a container with the VIRTUAL HOST env var set to foo.bar.com (in this case, the your proxied…
read the full nginx-proxy overview →
About docktail
🍸 DockTail Unleash your containers as Tailscale Services. DockTail watches Docker containers, reads docktail. labels, and exposes matching containers as Tailscale Services. App containers do not need published Docker ports by default; DockTail proxies directly to their Docker network IPs. Why DockTail? DockTail uses native Tailscale Services, not per container Tailscale devices. ¹ Depends on proxy and Docker network setup. ² Depends on the sidecar template and app network setup. ³ You configure how the service host reaches the backend yourself. ⁴ ScaleTail is template based, so each app usually starts from its…
read the full docktail overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nginx-proxy or docktail more popular?
nginx-proxy has 19,932 GitHub stars and docktail has 1,287. nginx-proxy has the larger community by that measure.
Are nginx-proxy and docktail free?
Both are open source. nginx-proxy is licensed under MIT and docktail under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nginx-proxy and docktail?
nginx-proxy is written in Python and docktail in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, nginx-proxy or docktail?
Choose nginx-proxy if you want the larger community (19,932 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose docktail if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.