# Emissary vs Traefik

| Attribute | Emissary | Traefik |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 50.2 (54% (medium)) | 54.2 (55% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 31 | 90 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 4 | 52 |
| adoption.github_stars | 4,519 | 64,604 |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | An open-source, CNCF incubation project providing a Kubernetes-native API gateway with Layer 7 load balancing and ingress capabilities for microservices, built on Envoy Proxy. | Traefik is a reverse proxy that automatically discovers services running in containers, virtual machines, and cloud environments, then routes traffic to them. It supports multiple orchestrators and deployment models while providing load balancing, security controls, API management capabilities, and real-time observability without requiring configuration changes as infrastructure scales. |
| features.capabilities | `{"mtls":true,"hosting":"self","k8s_native":true,"grpc_support":true,"observability":true,"rate_limiting":true}` | `{"hosting":"both","k8s_native":true,"oauth_oidc":true,"grpc_support":true,"monetization":true,"observability":true,"rate_limiting":true,"developer_portal":true,"plugin_ecosystem":"extensive","request_transformation":true}` |
| integrations.count | 7 | 19 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Consul"},{"name":"Linkerd"},{"name":"Istio"},{"name":"Knative"},{"name":"Grafana"},{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Datadog"}]` | `[{"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"}]` |
| language.primary | Python | Go |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | - | `{"cli":true,"linux":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://emissary-ingress.dev/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T08:33:38.485Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","summary":"Traefik Proxy is open source and free. Traefik Hub API Gateway and Traefik Hub API Management are commercial products requiring contact for pricing.","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://traefik.io/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T11:09:13.148Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | no |
| release.cadence_days | 18 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v4.1.0","date":"2026-05-19T21:35:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v4.1.0-rc.0","date":"2026-05-01T19:56:39Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v4.1.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v4.0.1","date":"2026-03-26T22:54:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v4.0.1-rc.0","date":"2026-04-30T20:43:30Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v4.0.1-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v4.0.0-rc.2","date":"2026-03-06T16:28:04Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v4.0.0-rc.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v4.0.0-rc.1","date":"2025-12-02T19:04:29Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v4.0.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.10.0","date":"2025-07-29T17:20:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.10.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.9.1","date":"2023-11-20T16:00:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/chart/v8.9.1","date":"2023-11-20T15:59:12Z","type":"stable","version":"chart/v8.9.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.9.0","date":"2023-11-13T12:42:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/chart/v8.9.0","date":"2023-11-13T12:40:29Z","type":"stable","version":"chart/v8.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.8.2","date":"2023-10-11T14:11:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.8.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/chart/v8.8.2","date":"2023-10-11T14:09:30Z","type":"stable","version":"chart/v8.8.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.8.1","date":"2023-09-18T14:54:43Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.8.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/chart/v8.8.1","date":"2023-09-18T14:53:18Z","type":"stable","version":"chart/v8.8.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.8.0","date":"2023-08-29T12:30:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/chart/v8.8.0","date":"2023-08-29T12:28:24Z","type":"stable","version":"chart/v8.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.7.2","date":"2023-07-25T17:22:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/chart/v8.7.2","date":"2023-07-25T17:20:17Z","type":"stable","version":"chart/v8.7.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/emissary-ingress/emissary/releases/tag/v3.7.1","date":"2023-07-13T17:36:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.1"}]` | `[{"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"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.6.21","date":"2026-06-10T14:17:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.6.21"},{"url":"https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v2.11.50","date":"2026-06-10T13:41:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.50"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 5.9 | 6.4 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Femissary-ingress%2Femissary%2Fv3&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":51,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Ftraefik%2Ftraefik%2Fv2&per_page=100","last_12m":27,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` |

## Capabilities (API Gateways)

| Capability | Emissary | Traefik |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Self-hosted only | 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 |
| **Insight** |  |  |
| Observability | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T15:10:09.982Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*