SHSelfHostIndex

boringproxy vs pgrok

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 PG pgrok Self-hosted ngrok alternative for sharing local services
Featureboringproxypgrok
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score15 · At risk79 · Good
CategoryRemote Access & VPNRemote Access & VPN
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM64 MB64 MB
Deploymentbinary, dockerdocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 1,384★ 3,649
First released20202023
Replacesngrokngrok

What are boringproxy and pgrok?

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

pgrok

pgrok is an open-source, self-hosted alternative to ngrok for exposing local web servers to the internet via secure tunnels. It uses SSH for transport and is simple to deploy.

  • SSH-based tunneling
  • Self-hosted server
  • Custom subdomains
  • Lightweight Go binary

boringproxy vs pgrok: key differences

Both projects are written in Go. Boringproxy is the more established project (first released 2020), while pgrok arrived in 2023. Pgrok has the considerably larger community, at 3,649 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 pgrok if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (3.6k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Go
pgrok details

Frequently asked questions

Is boringproxy or pgrok better?

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

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

Can I run boringproxy and pgrok with Docker?

boringproxy: yes. pgrok: yes.

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