SHSelfHostIndex

boringproxy vs GOST

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 GO GOST Versatile secure tunneling and proxy toolkit
FeatureboringproxyGOST
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score15 · At risk91 · Excellent
CategoryRemote Access & VPNRemote Access & VPN
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM64 MB64 MB
Deploymentbinary, dockerbinary, docker
GitHub stars★ 1,384★ 7,527
First released20202017
ReplacesngrokChisel, ngrok

What are boringproxy and GOST?

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

GOST

GOST is an open-source command-line tool that provides flexible secure tunneling and proxying with support for many protocols. It is self-hosted to build relay chains and forward traffic.

  • Multi-protocol tunneling
  • Relay chaining
  • Port forwarding
  • Single binary

boringproxy vs GOST: key differences

Both projects are written in Go. GOST is the more established project (first released 2017), while boringproxy arrived in 2020. GOST has the considerably larger community, at 7,527 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 GOST if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 7.5k GitHub stars
  • Written in Go
GOST details

Frequently asked questions

Is boringproxy or GOST better?

Neither is universally better. GOST 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 GOST free and open-source?

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

Can I run boringproxy and GOST with Docker?

boringproxy: yes. GOST: yes.

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