FreeRDP vs rathole
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
FreeRDP
Free implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol
VS
rathole
Lightweight and high-performance reverse proxy for NAT traversal
| Feature | FreeRDP | rathole |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,527 | ★ 13,999 |
| First released | 2009 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Microsoft RDP | ngrok, frp |
Why pick each one
Choose rathole if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 14k GitHub stars
- Written in Rust
Frequently asked questions
Is FreeRDP or rathole better?
Neither is universally better. rathole has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are FreeRDP and rathole free and open-source?
Yes. FreeRDP is licensed under Apache-2.0 and rathole under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run FreeRDP and rathole with Docker?
FreeRDP: check the project docs for container support. rathole: yes.