bore vs expose
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | bore | expose |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 62 · Good | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Rust | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | bare-metal, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 11,506 | ★ 4,574 |
| First released | 2022 | 2020 |
| Replaces | ngrok | ngrok |
What are bore and expose?
bore
bore is a modern, simple TCP tunnel tool that exposes local ports to a remote server. It is a tiny self-hostable alternative to ngrok with just a few hundred lines of code.
- Minimal TCP tunnel
- Self-hostable server
- Optional secret auth
- Tiny codebase
expose
expose is an open-source, PHP-based tunneling tool that shares local websites with anyone via a secure public URL. The server can be fully self-hosted on your own domain.
- Self-hosted tunnel server
- Custom domains and subdomains
- Request inspection
- Built with Laravel
bore vs expose: key differences
Bore is written in Rust, while expose is built with PHP. Bore is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for expose. Expose is the more established project (first released 2020), while bore arrived in 2022. Bore has the considerably larger community, at 11,506 GitHub stars versus 4,574.
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 11.5k GitHub stars
Choose expose if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in PHP
Frequently asked questions
Is bore or expose better?
bore is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider expose if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are bore and expose free and open-source?
Yes. bore is licensed under MIT and expose under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run bore and expose with Docker?
bore: yes. expose: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, bore or expose?
bore has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for expose. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.