# Apache APISIX vs Traefik

| Attribute | Apache APISIX | Traefik |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 54.2 (53% (medium)) | 56 (43% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 67 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 1 | 52 |
| adoption.github_stars | 17,220 | 65,044 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A dynamic, high-performance gateway that routes and secures API traffic with built-in plugins for authentication, rate limiting, and observability. Runs anywhere from bare metal to Kubernetes with no vendor lock-in. It is indexed under API Gateways.","source":"https://apisix.apache.org","question":"What is Apache APISIX?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Apache APISIX is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://apisix.apache.org","question":"Is Apache APISIX free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Apache APISIX supports Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://apisix.apache.org","question":"What platforms does Apache APISIX support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Apache APISIX can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://apisix.apache.org","question":"Can Apache APISIX be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 20 integrations for Apache APISIX, including OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, DeepSeek, Ollama, gRPC, Open Policy Agent and Spring Boot, plus 12 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://apisix.apache.org","question":"What does Apache APISIX integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Apache APISIX is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/apache/apisix","question":"Is Apache APISIX open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"A gateway platform that automatically discovers and routes traffic for microservices by integrating with orchestrators and service registries. It provides comprehensive API management, authentication, rate limiting, observability, and multi-cluster control across on-premises, cloud, and containerized environments. It is indexed under API Gateways.","source":"https://traefik.io/pricing","question":"What is Traefik?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Traefik is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the MIT licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://traefik.io/pricing","question":"Is Traefik free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Traefik supports the web, Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://traefik.io/pricing","question":"What platforms does Traefik support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Traefik can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid, air-gapped and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://traefik.io/pricing","question":"Can Traefik be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 20 integrations for Traefik, including Docker, Kubernetes, Consul, Etcd, Rancher, Amazon ECS, HashiCorp Nomad and Azure Service Fabric, plus 12 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://traefik.io/pricing","question":"What does Traefik integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Traefik is published under the MIT licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik","question":"Is Traefik open source?","confidence":0.95}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Open-source software that manages and routes traffic to APIs and AI services. Designed for flexible deployment on your own infrastructure with extensive customization through plugins. | A cloud-native application proxy and API gateway that provides centralized management for Kubernetes workloads, VM-based services, and API endpoints—including AI models and agents—through a single programmable gateway deployable on-premises or with any cloud provider. |
| features.capabilities | `{"mtls":true,"hosting":"both","k8s_native":true,"oauth_oidc":true,"open_source":true,"grpc_support":true,"monetization":true,"observability":true,"pricing_model":"open-source-self-host","rate_limiting":true,"graphql_gateway":false,"deployment_model":"self-hosted","developer_portal":true,"plugin_ecosystem":"extensive","routing_strategy":"custom","streaming_support":true,"automatic_failover":true,"budget_spend_controls":true,"guardrails_moderation":"built-in","openai_compatible_api":true,"request_transformation":true}` | `{"mtls":true,"hosting":"both","k8s_native":true,"oauth_oidc":true,"grpc_support":true,"http_caching":true,"monetization":true,"clustering_ha":true,"observability":true,"rate_limiting":true,"tls_termination":true,"developer_portal":true,"plugin_ecosystem":"extensive","hot_config_reload":true,"automatic_https_acme":true,"identity_aware_proxy":true,"request_transformation":true}` |
| integrations.count | 11 | 9 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Anthropic"},{"name":"AWS Bedrock"},{"name":"DeepSeek"},{"name":"Ollama"},{"name":"gRPC"},{"name":"gRPC-Web"},{"name":"Open Policy Agent"},{"name":"Spring Boot"},{"name":"OAuth2"},{"name":"OpenID Connect"},{"name":"Keycloak"},{"name":"Istio"},{"name":"Kuma"},{"name":"AWS Lambda"},{"name":"Azure Serverless Function"},{"name":"Apache OpenWhisk"},{"name":"Vault"},{"name":"Dubbo"},{"name":"MQTT"},{"name":"etcd"},{"name":"OpenTelemetry","category":"observability"},{"name":"ClickHouse","category":"analytics"},{"name":"Google Cloud","category":"cloud"},{"name":"Kubernetes","category":"infrastructure"},{"name":"Azure Functions","native":true,"category":"cloud","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Prometheus","native":true,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"HashiCorp Vault","native":true,"category":"security","direction":"outbound"}]` | `[{"name":"Docker"},{"name":"Kubernetes"},{"name":"Docker Swarm"},{"name":"Consul"},{"name":"Etcd"},{"name":"Rancher"},{"name":"Amazon ECS"},{"name":"HashiCorp Nomad"},{"name":"Azure Service Fabric"},{"name":"HashiCorp Vault"},{"name":"Let's Encrypt"},{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Datadog"},{"name":"Statsd"},{"name":"InfluxDB"},{"name":"Argo CD"},{"name":"OpenAPI"},{"name":"ModSecurity"},{"name":"Mesos"},{"name":"OpenTelemetry","native":true,"category":"observability","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Oracle Cloud Infrastructure","native":true,"category":"cloud"},{"name":"Red Hat OpenShift","native":true,"category":"kubernetes_platform","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Vault","native":false,"category":"secrets_management","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Treblle","native":false,"category":"observability","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Open Policy Agent","native":false,"category":"authorization","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Red Hat Marketplace","native":false,"category":"marketplace","direction":"outbound"}]` |
| language.primary | Lua | Go |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| market.availability | - | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://apisix.apache.org","retrievedAt":"2026-10-14T22:32:08.030Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Traefik Proxy","features":["Services auto-discovery","HTTP/2/3, TCP, UDP, gRPC, WebSockets","Real-time metrics and distributed tracing","Canary deployments","OpenTelemetry support","Ingress-view dashboard"],"description":"Open source reverse proxy and ingress controller"}],"freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://traefik.io/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-09-07T08:28:11.076Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | no |
| release.cadence_days | 61 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.19.0","date":"2026-09-28T05:13:59Z","type":"stable","version":"3.19.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.18.0","date":"2026-08-20T07:57:26Z","type":"stable","version":"3.18.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.17.0","date":"2026-06-16T07:22:13Z","type":"stable","version":"3.17.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.16.0","date":"2026-04-08T01:36:55Z","type":"stable","version":"3.16.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.15.0","date":"2026-02-05T13:55:04Z","type":"stable","version":"3.15.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.14.1","date":"2025-10-16T07:54:57Z","type":"stable","version":"3.14.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.14.0","date":"2025-10-10T05:53:01Z","type":"stable","version":"3.14.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.13.0","date":"2025-06-27T07:28:29Z","type":"stable","version":"3.13.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.12.0","date":"2025-04-01T07:27:27Z","type":"stable","version":"3.12.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.11.0","date":"2024-10-17T03:20:22Z","type":"stable","version":"3.11.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.10.0","date":"2024-08-14T06:16:05Z","type":"stable","version":"3.10.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.9.1","date":"2024-04-24T07:56:23Z","type":"stable","version":"3.9.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.8.1","date":"2024-04-29T03:06:26Z","type":"stable","version":"3.8.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.9.0","date":"2024-03-25T10:09:53Z","type":"stable","version":"3.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.8.0","date":"2024-01-15T03:35:34Z","type":"stable","version":"3.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.7.0","date":"2023-11-21T00:57:26Z","type":"stable","version":"3.7.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.6.0","date":"2023-10-04T06:40:49Z","type":"stable","version":"3.6.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.5.0","date":"2023-09-01T15:55:01Z","type":"stable","version":"3.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.2.2","date":"2023-07-22T16:32:15Z","type":"stable","version":"3.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/apisix/releases/tag/3.4.1","date":"2023-07-20T09:42:19Z","type":"stable","version":"3.4.1"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.7.13","date":"2026-09-04T12:40:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v2.11.57","date":"2026-09-04T12:23:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.57"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.7.12","date":"2026-08-26T13:42:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v2.11.56","date":"2026-08-26T13:40:05Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.56"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.7.11","date":"2026-08-19T06:44:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v2.11.55","date":"2026-08-18T08:56:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.55"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.7.10","date":"2026-07-31T12:49:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.6.25","date":"2026-07-31T12:34:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.6.25"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v2.11.54","date":"2026-07-31T12:18:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.54"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.7.9","date":"2026-07-24T12:47:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.6.24","date":"2026-07-24T12:33:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.6.24"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v2.11.53","date":"2026-07-24T12:19:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.53"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.7.8","date":"2026-07-15T12:51:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.7.7","date":"2026-07-08T15:39:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.6.23","date":"2026-07-08T14:31:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.6.23"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v2.11.52","date":"2026-07-08T13:09:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.52"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.7.6","date":"2026-06-30T12:21:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.6.22","date":"2026-06-30T09:58:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.6.22"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v2.11.51","date":"2026-06-30T09:07:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.51"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.7.5","date":"2026-06-10T15:00:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.5"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.certifications | - | `[{"name":"FIPS 140-3","status":"active"},{"name":"FIPS 140-2","status":"active"}]` |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | 7.2 | 6.4 |
| security.trust_center | https://apisix.apache.org/blog/2023/03/02/security-policy-auditable/ | https://traefik.io |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fapache%2Fapisix&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":56,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Ftraefik%2Ftraefik%2Fv2&per_page=100","last_12m":32,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` |

## Capabilities (API Gateways)

| Capability | Apache APISIX | Traefik |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Cloud + self-hosted | Cloud + self-hosted |
| Kubernetes-native | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Traffic** |  |  |
| Rate limiting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Request/response transformation | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Security** |  |  |
| OAuth2 / OIDC / JWT | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mutual TLS | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Protocols** |  |  |
| GraphQL gateway | ✗ | - |
| gRPC support | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Delivery** |  |  |
| Developer portal | ✓ | ✓ |
| Monetization | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Ecosystem** |  |  |
| Plugin ecosystem | Extensive | Extensive |
| **Insight** |  |  |
| Observability | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-17T01:58:53.010Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*