expose vs zrok
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
zrok
Open-source sharing platform built on OpenZiti
| Feature | expose | zrok |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | PHP | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,574 | ★ 4,720 |
| First released | 2020 | 2022 |
| Replaces | ngrok | ngrok |
What are expose and zrok?
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
zrok
zrok is an open-source peer-to-peer sharing platform built on the OpenZiti zero-trust network. It lets you share local web servers, files, and TCP services with public or private access.
- Public and private sharing
- Built on OpenZiti
- Self-hostable instances
- Frontend for web and TCP
expose vs zrok: key differences
Expose is written in PHP, while zrok is built with Go. Licensing differs — MIT for expose versus Apache-2.0 for zrok. Expose is the more established project (first released 2020), while zrok arrived in 2022.
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 zrok if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.7k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is expose or zrok better?
Neither is universally better. zrok has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are expose and zrok free and open-source?
Yes. expose is licensed under MIT and zrok under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run expose and zrok with Docker?
expose: yes. zrok: yes.