Traefik

Reverse proxy and load balancer that routes traffic to Docker containers.

Replaces

Paid managed reverse proxy and load balancer services, such as AWS Application Load Balancer.

All open-source alternatives to AWS Application Load Balancer

Difficulty

Difficulty: Easy

1 service, 1 volume mount, no env values to set, host access: docker_socket. Heuristic score 1 of 11: easy.

Stack

Go (language)

Deployment

docker_compose

Requirements

Not stated.

License

MIT (OSI-approved open source)

Read from github.com/traefik/traefik/blob/ee3b69d/LICENSE.md

Business model

Unknown

The README at the pinned commit does not state a business model, so it stays unknown.

Source: github.com/traefik/traefik/blob/ee3b69d/README.md, read on 2026-10-22.

Repository

traefik/traefik

GitHub stats

Stars: 65,321
Forks: 6,259
Open issues and pull requests: 960
Last push: 2026-10-22
Latest release: v3.7.16
Released: 2026-10-20

From the GitHub API on 2026-10-22. These numbers are a snapshot, not live. GitHub detected the license as MIT.

Compose file

Config check passed docker compose config exited 0 on this exact file on 2026-10-22.

docker.md Version 1

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  traefik:
    image: traefik:v3.7
    command:
      - "--api.insecure=true"
      - "--providers.docker=true"
      - "--entrypoints.web.address=:80"
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock

From the app's own repository: github.com/traefik/traefik/blob/ee3b69d/docs/content/getting-started/docker.md.

Compose example from the project's own docs: traefik/traefik:docs/content/getting-started/docker.md.

Install

Docker with the Compose plugin (github.com/traefik/traefik/blob/ee3b69d/docs/content/getting-started/docker.md#L35-L49)
A host with Docker and the Docker Compose plugin. This entry runs from a compose file.
Save the code block as docker-compose.yml (github.com/traefik/traefik/blob/ee3b69d/docs/content/getting-started/docker.md)
Use the compose file shown above.
What the compose file check ran with (github.com/traefik/traefik/blob/ee3b69d/docs/content/getting-started/docker.md#L35-L49)
This compose file is copied unchanged from the code block in https://github.com/traefik/traefik/blob/ee3b69d184037a7eaf3ef7212c8cadd347a75696/docs/content/getting-started/docker.md#L35-L49. The check ran on that block alone. The getting started guide for Docker shows this docker-compose.yml and tells the reader to run docker-compose up -d.
Start it (github.com/traefik/traefik/blob/ee3b69d/docs/content/getting-started/docker.md)
```
docker compose up -d
```
Open the app (github.com/traefik/traefik/blob/ee3b69d/docs/content/getting-started/docker.md)
Open http://localhost:8080. The compose file publishes host port 8080 for the traefik service. The guide says port 8080 serves the dashboard and marks that setting as for development use only.

Compose file check: config_ok on 2026-10-22.

Gotchas and maintenance

Gotchas

The compose file publishes host ports. Host ports: 80 (traefik), 8080 (traefik). A port without a host address listens on all host network interfaces. (github.com/traefik/traefik/blob/ee3b69d/docs/content/getting-started/docker.md, checked 2026-10-22)
Some services get elevated host access. traefik mounts the Docker socket, which gives it control of Docker on the host. (github.com/traefik/traefik/blob/ee3b69d/docs/content/getting-started/docker.md, checked 2026-10-22)

Signals

Open issues and pull requests: 960
Last push: 2026-10-22 (0 days before this page was built)
Latest release: v3.7.16 on 2026-10-20 (2 days before this page was built)