bore vs pgrok
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 | pgrok |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 62 · Good | 79 · Good |
| 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 | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 11,507 | ★ 3,648 |
| First released | 2022 | 2023 |
| Replaces | ngrok | ngrok |
What are bore and pgrok?
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
pgrok
pgrok is an open-source, self-hosted alternative to ngrok for exposing local web servers to the internet via secure tunnels. It uses SSH for transport and is simple to deploy.
- SSH-based tunneling
- Self-hosted server
- Custom subdomains
- Lightweight Go binary
bore vs pgrok: key differences
Bore is written in Rust, while pgrok is built with Go. Bore has the considerably larger community, at 11,507 GitHub stars versus 3,648.
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 pgrok if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is bore or pgrok better?
bore is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider pgrok if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are bore and pgrok free and open-source?
Yes. bore is licensed under MIT and pgrok under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run bore and pgrok with Docker?
bore: yes. pgrok: yes.