SHSelfHostIndex

boringproxy 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?
BO boringproxy Simple self-hosted reverse proxy and tunnel manager VS CH Chisel Fast TCP/UDP tunnel over HTTP secured by SSH
FeatureboringproxyChisel
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score15 · At risk95 · Excellent
CategoryRemote Access & VPNRemote Access & VPN
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM64 MB64 MB
Deploymentbinary, dockerbinary, docker
GitHub stars★ 1,384★ 16,571
First released20202015
Replacesngrokngrok

What are boringproxy and Chisel?

boringproxy

boringproxy is a simple but powerful tool for tunneling from a public server to a private machine, with automatic HTTPS. It is designed to be boringly reliable and easy to run.

  • Automatic HTTPS
  • Single binary
  • Web admin UI
  • Self-hosted tunneling

Chisel

Chisel is a fast TCP and UDP tunnel transported over HTTP and secured with SSH. It is a single executable that helps bypass firewalls and provide secure endpoints.

  • TCP/UDP over HTTP
  • SSH-secured tunnels
  • Single binary
  • Firewall traversal

Read the full Chisel guide →

boringproxy vs Chisel: key differences

Both projects are written in Go. Chisel is the more established project (first released 2015), while boringproxy arrived in 2020. Chisel has the considerably larger community, at 16,571 GitHub stars versus 1,384.

Why pick each one

Choose boringproxy if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (1.4k GitHub stars)
boringproxy details

Choose Chisel if…

  • Single small binary
  • SSH-encrypted tunnels
  • Works over plain HTTP

Watch out for

  • CLI configuration only
  • Sparse documentation
Chisel details

Frequently asked questions

Is boringproxy or Chisel better?

Neither is universally better. Chisel has the larger community, while boringproxy is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are boringproxy and Chisel free and open-source?

Yes. boringproxy is licensed under MIT and Chisel under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run boringproxy and Chisel with Docker?

boringproxy: yes. Chisel: yes.

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