dnscrypt-proxy vs NPS
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted reverse proxy & gateways options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
dnscrypt-proxy
Encrypted DNS proxy supporting DNSCrypt and DoH
VS
NPS
Lightweight proxy server for intranet penetration
| Feature | dnscrypt-proxy | NPS |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | ISC | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,554 | ★ 34,157 |
| First released | 2018 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Cloudflare WARP | ngrok |
Why pick each one
Choose dnscrypt-proxy if…
- Released under the ISC license
- Mature project with 13.6k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
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 dnscrypt-proxy 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 dnscrypt-proxy and NPS free and open-source?
Yes. dnscrypt-proxy is licensed under ISC and NPS under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run dnscrypt-proxy and NPS with Docker?
dnscrypt-proxy: check the project docs for container support. NPS: yes.