head to head · open source
traefik vs pomerium
traefik has 65,548 GitHub stars, 6,313 forks, 939 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pomerium has 5,103 stars, 371 forks, 159 open issues and last shipped yesterday. traefik leads on adoption by 1,184% (65,548 vs 5,103 stars). traefik is written in Go under MIT; pomerium is written in Go under Apache-2.0. traefik has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, pomerium 7%. pomerium was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (gateway, go), 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
| traefik | pomerium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-12 | 2026-11-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.3K | ⑂ 371 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick traefik if
- You weight community size — 66K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pomerium if
- You want the pomerium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and pomerium 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 pomerium
[ ][godocs] Pomerium is an identity and context aware reverse proxy. Pomerium builds secure, clientless connections to internal web apps and other services without a corporate VPN. Pomerium is: Easier with clientless access. Faster by being tunnel free and deployed where your apps and services are. Safer because every single action is verified before allowed to execute. Tailored to your organization’s needs by integrating all data for context aware access. It’s not a VPN alternative – it’s the trusted, foolproof way to protect your business. Want a hosted control plane and management GUI? Give Pomerium Zero a…
read the full pomerium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is traefik or pomerium more popular?
traefik has 65,548 GitHub stars and pomerium has 5,103. traefik has the larger community by that measure.
Are traefik and pomerium free?
Both are open source. traefik is licensed under MIT and pomerium under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between traefik and pomerium?
traefik is written in Go and pomerium 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, traefik or pomerium?
Choose traefik if you want the larger community (65,548 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pomerium if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.