Feature Squid (C, 1994–present) Deadlight (C, 2026) mitmproxy (Python, 2010–present)
Architecture Full proxy server, process-based workers Full proxy server, thread pool + GLib event loop Developer inspection tool, async Python
Protocol detection Manual config per protocol Automatic HTTP/HTTPS only
Protocols HTTP, HTTPS, FTP (legacy) HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS4/5, SMTP, IMAP, FTP, WebSocket HTTP, HTTPS, WebSocket
Connection pooling Yes — mature, highly tunable Yes, with health checks No
TLS interception Yes (ssl-bump) Yes (disabled for store build) Yes — primary feature
REST API Partial (cachemgr, limited) Full API — metrics, email, federation Yes
Plugin / scripting Yes (C helpers, ECap) Yes (compiled C plugins) Yes — Python addons, primary strength
Real-time dashboard cachemgr UI, basic SSE-powered Web UI Web UI + TUI
Binary size Large (Squid + deps) ~2 MB stripped Python runtime (~60 MB+)
Resource usage Moderate–high (cache, workers) Minimal RAM, edge-native design High (Python GIL, interpreter overhead)
Android / ARM64 No — never shipped as app Yes — native binary, Play Store target No — Python runtime makes this impractical
Federation / mesh No Yes — deadmesh, blog federation No
Primary use case Enterprise caching proxy, ISP-scale Edge proxy, personal infrastructure, mobile Developer traffic inspection and testing
is right now.