Fabio vs Skipper
Fabio
github.com
Skipper
opensource.zalando.comSide by side
| Figure | Fabio | Skipper |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Reverse Proxy Software | 8.8 (#4) | 7.3 (#20) |
| Deployment | The project README lists installation from source, prebuilt binaries, Docker, and Homebrew. | The project provides a Linux binary example and instructions for running Skipper in a Docker container. |
| Purpose | Fabio is an HTTP and TCP reverse proxy that configures itself with data from Consul. | Skipper is an HTTP router and reverse proxy for service composition, including Kubernetes Ingress use cases. |
| Traffic handling | Traffic shaping can forward a percentage of traffic upstream without knowing the number of instances. | Skipper can stream incoming requests and backend responses simultaneously, and can act as a final endpoint such as a static file server or diagnostic mock backend. |
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.
Skipper
Skipper has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.