Chisel vs tunnelmole
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?
Chisel
Fast TCP/UDP tunnel over HTTP secured by SSH
VS
tunnelmole
Open-source tunnel to expose local servers to the internet
| Feature | Chisel | tunnelmole |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | binary, docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,362 | ★ 1,885 |
| First released | 2015 | 2021 |
| Replaces | ngrok | ngrok, localtunnel |
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 tunnelmole if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.9k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Chisel or tunnelmole better?
Neither is universally better. Chisel has the larger community, while tunnelmole is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Chisel and tunnelmole free and open-source?
Yes. Chisel is licensed under MIT and tunnelmole under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Chisel and tunnelmole with Docker?
Chisel: yes. tunnelmole: yes.