boringproxy vs frp
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 | frp |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 100 · Excellent |
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,384 | ★ 109,598 |
| First released | 2020 | 2016 |
| Replaces | ngrok | ngrok |
What are boringproxy and frp?
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
frp
frp is a fast reverse proxy that exposes a local server located behind a NAT or firewall to the internet. It supports TCP, UDP, HTTP, and HTTPS tunneling.
- Expose services behind NAT
- TCP, UDP, and HTTP tunnels
- Single binary
- Encryption and compression
boringproxy vs frp: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — MIT for boringproxy versus Apache-2.0 for frp. Frp is the more established project (first released 2016), while boringproxy arrived in 2020. Frp has the considerably larger community, at 109,598 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 frp if…
- Single lightweight binary
- TCP UDP HTTP tunneling
- Battle-tested and popular
Watch out for
- Needs a public server
- Manual config file editing
Frequently asked questions
Is boringproxy or frp better?
Neither is universally better. frp 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 frp free and open-source?
Yes. boringproxy is licensed under MIT and frp under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run boringproxy and frp with Docker?
boringproxy: yes. frp: yes.