bore vs GOST
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 | GOST |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 62 · Good | 91 · Excellent |
| 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 | ★ 11,506 | ★ 7,527 |
| First released | 2022 | 2017 |
| Replaces | ngrok | Chisel, ngrok |
What are bore and GOST?
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
GOST
GOST is an open-source command-line tool that provides flexible secure tunneling and proxying with support for many protocols. It is self-hosted to build relay chains and forward traffic.
- Multi-protocol tunneling
- Relay chaining
- Port forwarding
- Single binary
bore vs GOST: key differences
Bore is written in Rust, while GOST is built with Go. GOST is the more established project (first released 2017), while bore arrived in 2022.
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 GOST if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 7.5k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is bore or GOST better?
bore is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider GOST if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are bore and GOST free and open-source?
Yes. bore is licensed under MIT and GOST under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run bore and GOST with Docker?
bore: yes. GOST: yes.