frp vs expose
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?
frp
Fast reverse proxy to expose local servers behind NAT
VS
expose
Beautiful, fully open-source tunnel to localhost
| Feature | frp | expose |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | bare-metal, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 108,622 | ★ 4,567 |
| First released | 2016 | 2020 |
| Replaces | ngrok | ngrok |
Why pick each one
Choose frp if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 108.6k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Choose expose if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in PHP
Frequently asked questions
Is frp or expose better?
Neither is universally better. frp has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are frp and expose free and open-source?
Yes. frp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and expose under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run frp and expose with Docker?
frp: yes. expose: yes.