Hetzner Load Balancer vs Envoy Proxy
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Hetzner Load Balancer and Envoy Proxy.
Hetzner Load Balancer Managed load balancing with Layer 4/7 support and auto-scaling integration | Envoy Proxy Cloud-native proxy and service mesh sidecar | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.0 (47 reviews) | 4.0 (307 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | paid | free |
| Starting price | From €6/mo | Free✓ |
| Best for | Teams running applications on Hetzner Cloud who need straightforward, managed load balancing without vendor lock-in concerns. | Platform engineering teams building service mesh infrastructure on Kubernetes using Istio or similar |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | managed optioneu datacenterus datacenter | free tieropen source |
| Visit Hetzner Load Balancer → | Visit Envoy Proxy → | |
Hetzner Load Balancer
Pros
- + Scale traffic handling without modifying application code
- + Terminate SSL/TLS encryption at the load balancer to reduce backend load
- + Configure round-robin, least connections, or IP-hash distribution algorithms
- + Monitor backend health with customizable check intervals and thresholds
Cons
- - Limited feature parity if comparing advanced options from AWS ELB or Google Cloud Load Balancer
- - Only cost-effective if already using Hetzner Cloud for backend infrastructure
Envoy Proxy
Pros
- + Foundation of major service meshes (Istio)
- + High performance C++ implementation
- + Built for Kubernetes microservices
Cons
- - Very complex configuration
- - Not for simple load balancing needs
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