head to head · open source
nginx-proxy vs goproxy
nginx-proxy has 19,933 GitHub stars, 3,038 forks, 327 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. goproxy has 17,145 stars, 3,090 forks, 143 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. nginx-proxy leads on adoption by 16% (19,933 vs 17,145 stars). nginx-proxy is written in Python under MIT; goproxy is written in Go under GPL-3.0. nginx-proxy has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, goproxy 18%. nginx-proxy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | goproxy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 17K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-08-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| 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 goproxy if
- You want the goproxy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and goproxy 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 goproxy
GOPROXY Introduction The GoProxy is a high performance http proxy, https proxy, socks5 proxy, ss proxy, websocket proxies, tcp proxies, udp proxies, game shield, game proxies. Support forward proxies, reverse proxy, transparent proxy, internet nat proxies, https proxy load balancing, http proxy load balancing , socks5 proxies load balancing, socket proxy load balancing, ss proxy load balancing, TCP / UDP port mapping, SSH transit, TLS encrypted transmission, protocol conversion, anti pollution DNS proxy, API authentication, speed limit, limit connection. Reverse proxies to help you expose a local server behind a…
read the full goproxy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nginx-proxy or goproxy more popular?
nginx-proxy has 19,933 GitHub stars and goproxy has 17,145. nginx-proxy has the larger community by that measure.
Are nginx-proxy and goproxy free?
Both are open source. nginx-proxy is licensed under MIT and goproxy under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nginx-proxy and goproxy?
nginx-proxy is written in Python and goproxy 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 goproxy?
Choose nginx-proxy if you want the larger community (19,933 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose goproxy if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.