Chisel vs NPS
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Chisel
Fast TCP/UDP tunnel over HTTP secured by SSH
VS
NPS
Lightweight proxy server for intranet penetration
| Feature | Chisel | NPS |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,362 | ★ 34,157 |
| First released | 2015 | 2019 |
| Replaces | ngrok | ngrok |
Why pick each one
Choose Chisel if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 16.4k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Choose NPS if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 34.2k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Chisel or NPS better?
Neither is universally better. NPS has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Chisel and NPS free and open-source?
Yes. Chisel is licensed under MIT and NPS under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Chisel and NPS with Docker?
Chisel: yes. NPS: yes.