boringproxy 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 | boringproxy | expose |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | bare-metal, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,384 | ★ 4,574 |
| First released | 2020 | 2020 |
| Replaces | ngrok | ngrok |
What are boringproxy and expose?
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
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
boringproxy vs expose: key differences
Boringproxy is written in Go, while expose is built with PHP. Boringproxy is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for expose. Expose has the considerably larger community, at 4,574 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)
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 boringproxy or expose better?
Neither is universally better. expose 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 expose free and open-source?
Yes. boringproxy is licensed under MIT and expose under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run boringproxy and expose with Docker?
boringproxy: yes. expose: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, boringproxy or expose?
boringproxy 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.