bore vs Chisel
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
| Feature | bore | Chisel |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Rust | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 11,363 | ★ 16,362 |
| First released | 2022 | 2015 |
| Replaces | ngrok | ngrok |
Why pick each one
Choose bore if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 11.4k GitHub stars
Choose Chisel if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 16.4k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is bore or Chisel better?
Neither is universally better. Chisel has the larger community, while bore is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are bore and Chisel free and open-source?
Yes. bore is licensed under MIT and Chisel under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run bore and Chisel with Docker?
bore: yes. Chisel: yes.