HAProxy Community Edition vs LocalXpose
HAProxy Community Edition
haproxy.orgLocalXpose
localxpose.ioSide by side
| Figure | HAProxy Community Edition | LocalXpose |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $8/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 3 |
| Spec score · Reverse Proxy Software | 8.8 (#5) | 8.3 (#7) |
| Integrations | The 3.4 release notes list an OpenTelemetry filter and ACME certificate features including DNS-01 challenges. | The maker describes CLI use in CI pipelines, Docker containers, and scripts, and lists a GitHub Actions resource on its site. |
| Protocols | The project supports TCP and HTTP-based applications, and its listed recent versions include QUIC and HTTP/3 features. | It supports HTTP or HTTPS including WebSockets, TCP or TLS, and UDP tunnels. |
| Purpose | HAProxy is a free, fast reverse proxy offering high availability, load balancing, and proxying for TCP and HTTP applications. | LocalXpose is a reverse proxy that exposes localhost services to the public internet through secure tunnels. |
| Security | Listed defensive measures include chroot, privilege drops, fork prevention, strict protocol validation, and checks for impossible states. | The maker says tunnel hosts terminate at its edge with TLS 1.2+ encryption and scoped access tokens; users can configure IP allow lists and authentication plugins. |
| Support | The project points users to commercial support contracts and professional services from HAProxy Technologies. | The maker says self-serve teams can get help by email, while business and enterprise plans add priority ticketing, 24/7 incident response, and migration assistance. |
Plans
HAProxy Community Edition
- HAProxy Community EditionFree
- HAProxy Community EditionFree
- HAProxy EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
HAProxy Community Edition
HAProxy Community Edition is free, self-hosted software for proxying TCP and HTTP applications, with high availability and load balancing. It is aimed especially at very high-traffic websites. HAProxy runs on Linux, where it is included with most mainstream distributions and is often deployed by default on cloud platforms. Its event-driven design uses light multithreading on SMP machines. The project lists Layer 4 and Layer 7 routing and TLS termination, along with TCP and HTTP support; recent versions also include QUIC and HTTP/3 features. Listed safeguards include chroot, privilege drops, fork prevention, strict protocol validation, and checks for impossible states. The site reports up to 2 million SSL requests per second and 100 Gbps of forwarded traffic on AWS Graviton2. HAProxy 3.4 is in development, and 3.4.6 is the latest listed release in that branch. Its features include dynamic backends, HTTP/2 flood protections, ACME improvements, experimental QMUX, and an OpenTelemetry filter. LTS branches receive five years of maintenance; other stable branches receive 12 to 18 months.
LocalXpose
LocalXpose is a reverse proxy for making services on a local machine reachable from the public internet through tunnels. It supports HTTP and HTTPS, including WebSockets, alongside TCP, TLS, and UDP. Users can work through a command-line interface or graphical interfaces, including a desktop app for sharing previews. The product includes authentication, rate limiting, IP whitelisting, header editing, and a built-in file server on all plans. Traffic logs cover HTTP, TCP, and UDP, and webhook payloads can be inspected, modified, and replayed. Custom and wildcard domains and automatic Let's Encrypt certificates for custom domains are available. The maker says tunnel hosts terminate at its edge with TLS 1.2+ encryption; users can configure scoped access tokens, IP allow lists, and authentication plugins. Starter is free and allows two active HTTP or HTTPS tunnels, with time limits and an interstitial warning page. PRO costs $8 a month, billed annually at $96/yr, and supports 10 tunnels. LocalXpose runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, web, and self-hosted environments.