having tried many in past, i always go back to haproxy. it has everything required as proxy and load balancer while also being very efficient.

I like NPM, it’s simple, but also allows for more complex configs as well if needed. I run it in its own LXC because I have other non-dockerized things that are exposed.

i use nginx proxy manager but im barely getting by. Theres zero useful documentation for setting up custom paths so everyone uses subdomains. I ended up buying my own domain just so i didnt feel guilty spamming freedns lmao.

For a while now I’ve been using either haproxy or nginx depending on my needs. I’ve hit instances with both where the functionality I want is in the paid version.

I use both, Traefik on my docker host that’s also used for trying out new stacks, and NPM at work for a config that won’t change (ever, probably).

Yes, the NPM web ui is somewhat easier in regard to proxying targets outside Docker.

I’ve been using caddyserver for awhile and love it. Config is nicely readable and the defaults are very good.

I use nginx as the internet facing proxy, write my own config and manage it with source control. Also use traefik in docker land with service labels to configure it

In my experience, all the 3 big ones work just fine. Caddy, Traefik, Nginx. I use Nginx.

Nginx for my intranet because configuration is fully manual and I have complete control over it.

Caddy for the public services on my vps because it handles cert renewal automatically and most of its configuration is magic which just works.

It is unbelievable how shorter caddy configuration is, but on my intranet:

1. I don’t want my reverse proxy to dial on internet to try to fetch new SSL certs. I know it can be disabled, but this is the default.
2. I like to learn how stuff works, Nginx forces you to know more details but it is full of good documentation so it is not too painful compared to Caddy.

I highly recommend npm. It’s also the only one I’ve used, so please keep that in mind.

I use NPM in a docker container. It could not be easier in my opinion but then again, I did not use any of the alternatives so I might be missing out on something, who knows. I did manage a couple of proxy servers in the past based on Apache and I can tell you that NPM is much easier and logical to me than that.

Just create a compose file and start it. Create DNS records pointing to your NPM IP address/exposed IP and make a host in NPM sending traffic to the right container IP:port. The compose file is super simple, could not be easier. Here’s mine for example:

services:
  nginx-proxy-manager:
    container_name: nginx-proxy-manager
    image: 'jc21/nginx-proxy-manager:latest'
    restart: always
    ports:
      - '80:80'
      - '443:443'
    volumes:
      - ./data:/data
      - ./letsencrypt:/etc/letsencrypt

I just make sure ports 443 and 80 are exposed on my router so DNS records can point to that IP adrdess. All traffic on port 80 gets re-routed to 443.

I’m probably stating all the obvious things here 😀

it seems easier to manage stuff not in docker

Read into Traefik’s dynamic configuration. Adding something outside of Docker is as easy as adding a new config file in the dynamic configuration folder. E.g. jellyfin.yml:

http:

  routers:

    jellyfin:
      rule: Host(`jellyfin.example.org`)
      entrypoints: websecure
      tls:
        certResolver: le
      service: jellyfin

  services:

    jellyfin:
      loadbalancer:
        servers:
          - url: "http://192.168.1.5:8096/"

The moment you save that file it will be active and working in Traefik.

freenginx

I really like Zoraxy. Similar to NPM but it’s its own thing and I like it a lot more

I know how to use raw nginx/Caddy/traefik to do it, but I find the WebUI and all the extra features Zoraxy has to be very convenient and easy to use.

Caddy is really simple and easy. Just werks and gives you https