Fabio vs Piko
Fabio
github.comPiko
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Fabio | Piko |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Reverse Proxy Software | 8.8 (#4) | 7.2 (#22) |
| Deployment | The project README lists installation from source, prebuilt binaries, Docker, and Homebrew. | Piko can be downloaded as a binary, built from source, or run as a Docker image. |
| Integrations | The project README says Fabio integrates with Consul, Vault, Amazon ELB, and Amazon API Gateway. | Piko provides a Go SDK and documents hosting behind a Kubernetes Gateway or HTTP load balancer. |
| Purpose | Fabio is an HTTP and TCP reverse proxy that configures itself with data from Consul. | Piko is an open-source reverse proxy for tunneling traffic to services that are not publicly routable. |
| Security | The README says release hashes are signed with a PGP key and describes TLS certificate verification behavior for upstream HTTPS connections. | The maker describes Piko as providing a secure way to connect to services that are not publicly routable, and documents TLS support for Piko forward. |
Plans
In their own words
Fabio
Fabio is a self-hosted HTTP and TCP reverse proxy that builds its routing from Consul service data. Services can announce accepted paths with tags such as `urlprefix-/user`; Fabio then refreshes its routing table when Consul changes, without restarting or reloading. Its main role is distributing incoming HTTP(S) and TCP traffic from the internet to frontend services. It is not intended for frontend-to-backend or backend-to-backend routing, where Consul service discovery is used instead. Fabio provides route-specific access control, authorization, customizable logs, redirects, compression, header injection, path changes, WebSockets, server-sent events, and transparent gRPC proxying. It supports TLS termination, dynamic certificate stores, HTTPS upstreams, raw TCP, TCP-SNI forwarding, and traffic shaping by percentage. A web UI shows the active routes, with metrics integrations. Fabio is free, open-source software for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and requires Consul for service discovery.