bore vs tunnelmole
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 | tunnelmole |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 62 · Good | 66 · Good |
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Rust | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | binary, docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 11,506 | ★ 1,892 |
| First released | 2022 | 2021 |
| Replaces | ngrok | ngrok, localtunnel |
What are bore and tunnelmole?
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
tunnelmole
Tunnelmole is an open-source tunneling tool that gives local web servers a public URL. The client and server are both open source so the entire service can be self-hosted.
- Public URLs for local apps
- Self-hostable server
- No signup needed
- Cross-platform client
bore vs tunnelmole: key differences
Bore is written in Rust, while tunnelmole is built with TypeScript. Bore is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for tunnelmole. Bore has the considerably larger community, at 11,506 GitHub stars versus 1,892.
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 tunnelmole if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.9k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is bore or tunnelmole better?
Neither is universally better. bore has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are bore and tunnelmole free and open-source?
Yes. bore is licensed under MIT and tunnelmole under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run bore and tunnelmole with Docker?
bore: yes. tunnelmole: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, bore or tunnelmole?
bore has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for tunnelmole. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.