Comparison with Other Proxies

Comparison with Other Proxies

Feature Matrix

Feature	Dwaar	Caddy	Nginx	Traefik	HAProxy	Envoy
Setup
Lines for basic proxy	3	3	14	15	12	30+
Auto HTTPS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Zero-config defaults	Yes	Yes	No	Partial	No	No
Runtime config API	Yes	Yes	Reload	Yes	Stats	xDS
Docker label discovery	Yes	Plugin	No	Yes	No	No
Performance
Language	Rust	Go	C	Go	C	C++
Memory (typical)	~25 MB	~30 MB	~10 MB	~50 MB	~10 MB	~50 MB
HTTP/2	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Connection pooling	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Zero-downtime upgrade	Yes	Yes	Limited	Yes	Yes	Yes
Observability
Structured logging	Yes	Yes	Plugin	Yes	No	Yes
Built-in analytics	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
First-party (ad-block-proof)	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Bot detection	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Prometheus metrics	Yes	Plugin	Plugin	Yes	Yes	Yes
Security
Rate limiting	Yes	Plugin	Plugin	Yes	Yes	Yes
Security headers (auto)	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
WASM plugins	Yes	No	No	Plugin	No	Yes
Unique to Dwaar
First-party analytics	Yes	—	—	—	—	—
Dwaarfile config	Yes	—	—	—	—	—
Pingora engine	Yes	—	—	—	—	—

When to Choose Dwaar

Choose Dwaar if you want:

• Caddy’s simplicity with better performance
• Built-in analytics without adding another service
• A modern Rust proxy with WASM extensibility
• The smallest memory footprint for a full-featured proxy

Choose Caddy if you need:

• Maximum plugin ecosystem (hundreds of Go modules)
• HTTP/3 support today
• 10 years of production battle-testing

Choose Nginx if you need:

• Maximum raw throughput and you have ops expertise
• Lua scripting for complex logic
• The most widely documented proxy

Choose Traefik if you need:

• Deep Kubernetes integration (Ingress Controller)
• Built-in service discovery across multiple orchestrators
• Enterprise middleware ecosystem

Choose HAProxy if you need:

• Layer 4 (TCP/UDP) load balancing
• Maximum reliability for critical infrastructure
• Advanced health checking and failover