Traefik

Traefik is a reverse proxy designed for the container era. While Nginx requires configuration files that you write and reload, Traefik discovers services automatically by watching Docker, Kubernetes, or other orchestrators. Add a container with the right labels, and Traefik routes traffic to it. The automatic service discovery is transformative for container deployments. No more editing proxy configuration every time you deploy. Labels on your containers define the routing—hostnames, paths, middleware. Traefik reads them and updates routing in real-time. Let's Encrypt integration is built in and automatic. Define that a router needs TLS, and Traefik obtains and renews certificates without intervention. This removes the operational burden of managing certificates manually. Middleware provides processing between the proxy and your services. Rate limiting, authentication, header manipulation, circuit breakers—they compose as a chain. You can build sophisticated request processing without touching your application code. The dashboard gives visibility into your routing configuration. See which services are registered, what routes are active, and how traffic is flowing. For debugging routing issues, this visualization helps. Traefik supports multiple orchestration platforms: Docker, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, Marathon, and more. This makes it a consistent choice across different infrastructure setups. The main consideration is complexity for simple deployments. If you're not using containers, Nginx with a static config is simpler. But for containerized deployments, especially with dynamic scaling, Traefik's automatic discovery is worth the learning curve.