FrankenPHP vs Pingap
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?
FrankenPHP
Modern PHP application server built on Caddy
VS
Pingap
Reverse proxy built on Cloudflare's Pingora framework
| Feature | FrankenPHP | Pingap |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 11,275 | ★ 1,325 |
| First released | 2022 | 2024 |
| Replaces | nginx, Apache HTTP Server | nginx |
Why pick each one
Choose FrankenPHP if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 11.3k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Choose Pingap if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
Frequently asked questions
Is FrankenPHP or Pingap better?
Neither is universally better. FrankenPHP has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are FrankenPHP and Pingap free and open-source?
Yes. FrankenPHP is licensed under MIT and Pingap under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run FrankenPHP and Pingap with Docker?
FrankenPHP: yes. Pingap: yes.