boringproxy vs Headscale
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?
boringproxy
Simple self-hosted reverse proxy and tunnel manager
VS
Headscale
Open-source self-hosted Tailscale control server
| Feature | boringproxy | Headscale |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,381 | ★ 42,612 |
| First released | 2020 | 2020 |
| Replaces | ngrok | Tailscale |
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)
Frequently asked questions
Is boringproxy or Headscale better?
Neither is universally better. Headscale 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 Headscale free and open-source?
Yes. boringproxy is licensed under MIT and Headscale under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run boringproxy and Headscale with Docker?
boringproxy: yes. Headscale: yes.