head to head · open source
traefik vs SoftEtherVPN
traefik has 65,442 GitHub stars, 6,318 forks, 939 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. SoftEtherVPN has 13,698 stars, 2,800 forks, 296 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. traefik leads on adoption by 378% (65,442 vs 13,698 stars). traefik is written in Go under MIT; SoftEtherVPN is written in C under Apache-2.0. traefik has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, SoftEtherVPN 20%. traefik 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 | SoftEtherVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 65K | ★ 14K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.3K | ⑂ 2.8K |
| 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 SoftEtherVPN if
- You want the SoftEtherVPN feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and SoftEtherVPN 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 SoftEtherVPN
SoftEther VPN SoftEther VPN BOARD MEMBERS OF THIS REPOSITORY SOFTETHER VPN ADVANTAGES Installation For FreeBSD For Windows From binary installers (stable channel) Build from Source code Antivirus False Positive Detection About HTML5 based Modern Admin Console and JSON RPC API Suite Built in SoftEther VPN Server HTML5 Ajax based Web Administration Console Built in SoftEther Server VPN JSON RPC API Suite TO CIRCUMVENT YOUR GOVERNMENT'S FIREWALL RESTRICTION SOURCE CODE CONTRIBUTION DEAR SECURITY EXPERTS SoftEther VPN (Developer Edition Master Repository) An Open Source Cross platform Multi protocol VPN Program This…
read the full SoftEtherVPN overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is traefik or SoftEtherVPN more popular?
traefik has 65,442 GitHub stars and SoftEtherVPN has 13,698. traefik has the larger community by that measure.
Are traefik and SoftEtherVPN free?
Both are open source. traefik is licensed under MIT and SoftEtherVPN under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between traefik and SoftEtherVPN?
traefik is written in Go and SoftEtherVPN in C. 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 SoftEtherVPN?
Choose traefik if you want the larger community (65,442 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose SoftEtherVPN if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.