frp vs tunnelmole
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
tunnelmole
Open-source tunnel to expose local servers to the internet
| Feature | frp | tunnelmole |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | binary, docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 108,622 | ★ 1,885 |
| First released | 2016 | 2021 |
| Replaces | ngrok | ngrok, localtunnel |
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 tunnelmole if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.9k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is frp or tunnelmole better?
Neither is universally better. frp has the larger community, while tunnelmole is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are frp and tunnelmole free and open-source?
Yes. frp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and tunnelmole under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run frp and tunnelmole with Docker?
frp: yes. tunnelmole: yes.