SHSelfHostIndex

Chisel 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.

Not the right match-up?
CH Chisel Fast TCP/UDP tunnel over HTTP secured by SSH VS FR frp Fast reverse proxy to expose local servers behind NAT
FeatureChiselfrp
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score95 · Excellent100 · Excellent
CategoryRemote Access & VPNRemote Access & VPN
LicenseMITApache-2.0
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM64 MB64 MB
Deploymentbinary, dockerbinary, docker
GitHub stars★ 16,571★ 109,598
First released20152016
Replacesngrokngrok

What are Chisel and frp?

Chisel

Chisel is a fast TCP and UDP tunnel transported over HTTP and secured with SSH. It is a single executable that helps bypass firewalls and provide secure endpoints.

  • TCP/UDP over HTTP
  • SSH-secured tunnels
  • Single binary
  • Firewall traversal

Read the full Chisel guide →

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

Read the full frp guide →

Chisel vs frp: key differences

Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — MIT for Chisel versus Apache-2.0 for frp. Frp has the considerably larger community, at 109,598 GitHub stars versus 16,571.

Why pick each one

Choose Chisel if…

  • Single small binary
  • SSH-encrypted tunnels
  • Works over plain HTTP

Watch out for

  • CLI configuration only
  • Sparse documentation
Chisel details

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
frp details

Frequently asked questions

Is Chisel or frp better?

Neither is universally better. frp has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Chisel and frp free and open-source?

Yes. Chisel is licensed under MIT and frp under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Chisel and frp with Docker?

Chisel: yes. frp: yes.

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