GOST 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?
GOST
Versatile secure tunneling and proxy toolkit
VS
tunnelmole
Open-source tunnel to expose local servers to the internet
| Feature | GOST | tunnelmole |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | binary, docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,255 | ★ 1,885 |
| First released | 2017 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Chisel, ngrok | ngrok, localtunnel |
Why pick each one
Choose GOST if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 7.3k 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 GOST or tunnelmole better?
Neither is universally better. GOST 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 GOST and tunnelmole free and open-source?
Yes. GOST is licensed under MIT and tunnelmole under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run GOST and tunnelmole with Docker?
GOST: yes. tunnelmole: yes.