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.
| Feature | Chisel | tunnelmole |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 95 · Excellent | 66 · Good |
| 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 | ★ 16,571 | ★ 1,892 |
| First released | 2015 | 2021 |
| Replaces | ngrok | ngrok, localtunnel |
What are Chisel and tunnelmole?
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
tunnelmole
Tunnelmole is an open-source tunneling tool that gives local web servers a public URL. The client and server are both open source so the entire service can be self-hosted.
- Public URLs for local apps
- Self-hostable server
- No signup needed
- Cross-platform client
Chisel vs tunnelmole: key differences
Chisel is written in Go, while tunnelmole is built with TypeScript. Chisel is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for tunnelmole. Chisel is the more established project (first released 2015), while tunnelmole arrived in 2021. Chisel has the considerably larger community, at 16,571 GitHub stars versus 1,892.
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
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.
Which is lighter on resources, Chisel or tunnelmole?
Chisel has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for tunnelmole. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.