head to head · open source
traefik vs meridian
traefik has 65,479 GitHub stars, 6,308 forks, 939 open issues and last shipped yesterday. meridian has 500 stars, 27 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped yesterday. traefik leads on adoption by 12,996% (65,479 vs 500 stars). traefik is written in Go under MIT; meridian is written in Python under MIT. traefik has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, meridian 5%. meridian was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| traefik | meridian | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 65K | ★ 500 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-11-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.3K | ⑂ 27 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick traefik if
- You weight community size — 65K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick meridian if
- You want the meridian feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and meridian fits your workflow better
About traefik
Traefik (pronounced traffic ) is a modern HTTP reverse proxy and load balancer that makes deploying microservices easy. Traefik integrates with your existing infrastructure components (Docker, Swarm mode, Kubernetes, Consul, Etcd, Rancher v2, Amazon ECS, ...) and configures itself automatically and dynamically. Pointing Traefik at your orchestrator should be the only configuration step you need. . Overview . Features . Supported backends . Quickstart . Web UI . Documentation . . Support . Release cycle . Contributing . Maintainers . Credits . :warning: When migrating to a new major version of Traefik, please…
read the full traefik overview →
About meridian
Meridian Deploy it right. Share it easily. One command turns a fresh VPS into a hardened self hosted VPN server, with a built in web panel and a connection page for each person. A VPN that connects can still give itself away: an open admin port, a self signed certificate, a container that skips the firewall. Meridian sets up every layer on a fresh Debian or Ubuntu VPS, tests the server with real traffic, and gives you two interfaces: a connection page for each person who connects and a web panel to manage people and servers from any browser. When an address gets blocked, add a relay, turn on domain mode, or move…
read the full meridian overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is traefik or meridian more popular?
traefik has 65,479 GitHub stars and meridian has 500. traefik has the larger community by that measure.
Are traefik and meridian free?
Both are open source. traefik is licensed under MIT and meridian under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between traefik and meridian?
traefik is written in Go and meridian in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, traefik or meridian?
Choose traefik if you want the larger community (65,479 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose meridian if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.