expose vs pgrok
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 | pgrok |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 79 · Good |
| 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 | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,574 | ★ 3,648 |
| First released | 2020 | 2023 |
| Replaces | ngrok | ngrok |
What are expose and pgrok?
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
pgrok
pgrok is an open-source, self-hosted alternative to ngrok for exposing local web servers to the internet via secure tunnels. It uses SSH for transport and is simple to deploy.
- SSH-based tunneling
- Self-hosted server
- Custom subdomains
- Lightweight Go binary
expose vs pgrok: key differences
Expose is written in PHP, while pgrok is built with Go. Pgrok is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for expose. Expose is the more established project (first released 2020), while pgrok arrived in 2023.
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 pgrok if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is expose or pgrok better?
Neither is universally better. expose has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are expose and pgrok free and open-source?
Yes. expose is licensed under MIT and pgrok under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run expose and pgrok with Docker?
expose: yes. pgrok: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, expose or pgrok?
pgrok 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.