Pick Traefik if you run containers or Kubernetes and want a reverse proxy that finds your services and writes its own routes, with HTTPS from Let's Encrypt built in. Pick nginx if you also need a web server that serves files, caches content and proxies mail or TCP traffic, configured by hand in one file. Traefik saves you route maintenance; nginx gives you a broader toolbox.
I read Traefik Labs' Traefik page, the Traefik GitHub readme and docs, then nginx.org's home page, beginner's guide and licence. Both sit in front of your apps, but they come at the job from opposite directions.
Traefik and nginx at a glance
| Traefik | nginx | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Cloud native reverse proxy, load balancer and ingress controller | Web server, reverse proxy, cache, load balancer, TCP/UDP and mail proxy |
| Configuration | Discovers services from Docker, Kubernetes, Consul, ECS and more | Written in nginx.conf, reloaded without stopping service |
| HTTPS | Let's Encrypt certificates generated automatically, wildcards supported | SSL and TLS SNI support |
| Serving files | Not its job | Static and index files with caching |
| Extras | Middlewares, web UI, REST API, Wasm and OpenTelemetry | Rewrite rules, rate limiting, A/B testing, njs scripting |
| Licence | Open source, with Traefik Hub from Traefik Labs | 2-clause BSD, with commercial support from F5 |
| Free option (as of October 2026) | Yes, open source | Yes, open source |
Why teams choose Traefik
The readme puts the problem plainly: traditional reverse proxies make you configure each route to each microservice, and when services change many times a day, keeping those routes current becomes tedious. Traefik listens to your orchestrator or service registry and generates the routes itself, then keeps updating its configuration with no restarts.
It comes with middlewares for load balancing, rate limiting, circuit breakers, retries, mirroring and authentication, plus a web UI. It ships as a single Go binary and an official Docker image, and sends metrics to tools such as Prometheus and Datadog. Traefik 3 added WebAssembly plugins, OpenTelemetry, the Kubernetes Gateway API and HTTP/3.
What nginx still does that Traefik doesn't
nginx describes itself as an HTTP web server, reverse proxy, content cache, load balancer, TCP/UDP proxy and mail proxy. That first word matters. It serves static files directly, caches FastCGI, uwsgi and SCGI responses, rewrites URLs with regular expressions and can even proxy IMAP, POP3 and SMTP.
It runs one master process and several worker processes on an event-based model, and you change behaviour in nginx.conf and reload without interrupting service. nginx was originally written by Igor Sysoev, is distributed under the 2-clause BSD License, and F5 sells enterprise distributions and support.
The Kubernetes detail worth knowing
nginx powers several Ingress Controllers for Kubernetes, but Traefik is targeting that ground directly. Its docs carry a guide to migrating from Ingress NGINX to Traefik and an Ingress NGINX provider, and Traefik Labs' site urges teams to migrate. If you're choosing an ingress for a cluster, that's the comparison that matters, not nginx as a web server.
How to decide
- Do your services come and go often in Docker or Kubernetes? Traefik's automatic routing is the reason to pick it.
- Do you need to serve a website's files, cache pages or proxy mail? That's nginx.
- Do you want HTTPS certificates handled for you? Traefik generates them with Let's Encrypt out of the box.
- Do you have years of nginx configs and know-how in the team? Staying put is reasonable.
- Running both is an option: nginx serving an app, with Traefik routing traffic to it.
If you're also speeding up delivery, see this comparison of CloudFront and BunnyCDN, and how to find remote DevOps talent to run it.
My advice on Traefik or nginx
If you're running containers and you're tired of editing routes every time a service changes, Traefik is built for you, and its automatic HTTPS is a real time saver. If you need a web server as much as a proxy, or you want one tool that also caches, rewrites and handles mail and TCP, nginx is the broader choice. I'd let your platform decide: orchestrated microservices lean Traefik, websites and mixed workloads lean nginx.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Traefik a replacement for nginx?
For reverse proxying and ingress, it can be. Traefik doesn't describe itself as a web server for static files, which nginx is, so many setups use both.
Does Traefik need restarts when routes change?
No. Traefik's readme says it continuously updates its configuration with no restarts, by listening to your orchestrator or service registry.
Can nginx get HTTPS certificates automatically?
nginx's own pages list SSL and TLS SNI support. Traefik is the one that says it generates certificates automatically with ACME providers like Let's Encrypt.
What licence does nginx use?
nginx.org says nginx is distributed under the 2-clause BSD License.
Can I move from Ingress NGINX to Traefik?
Traefik's docs include a migration guide from Ingress NGINX to Traefik and an Ingress NGINX provider.
