expose vs GOST
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | expose | GOST |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 91 · Excellent |
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | PHP | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, docker | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,574 | ★ 7,527 |
| First released | 2020 | 2017 |
| Replaces | ngrok | Chisel, ngrok |
What are expose and GOST?
expose
expose is an open-source, PHP-based tunneling tool that shares local websites with anyone via a secure public URL. The server can be fully self-hosted on your own domain.
- Self-hosted tunnel server
- Custom domains and subdomains
- Request inspection
- Built with Laravel
GOST
GOST is an open-source command-line tool that provides flexible secure tunneling and proxying with support for many protocols. It is self-hosted to build relay chains and forward traffic.
- Multi-protocol tunneling
- Relay chaining
- Port forwarding
- Single binary
expose vs GOST: key differences
Expose is written in PHP, while GOST is built with Go. GOST is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for expose. GOST is the more established project (first released 2017), while expose arrived in 2020.
Why pick each one
Choose expose if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in PHP
Choose GOST if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 7.5k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is expose or GOST better?
Neither is universally better. GOST has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are expose and GOST free and open-source?
Yes. expose is licensed under MIT and GOST under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run expose and GOST with Docker?
expose: yes. GOST: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, expose or GOST?
GOST has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for expose. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.