Chisel vs Teleport
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
Teleport
Identity-aware access for infrastructure
| Feature | Chisel | Teleport |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,362 | ★ 20,780 |
| First released | 2015 | 2016 |
| Replaces | ngrok | Cisco AnyConnect, AWS Systems Manager |
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 Teleport if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 20.8k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Chisel or Teleport better?
Neither is universally better. Teleport has the larger community, while Chisel is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Chisel and Teleport free and open-source?
Yes. Chisel is licensed under MIT and Teleport under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Chisel and Teleport with Docker?
Chisel: yes. Teleport: yes.