GOST vs pgrok
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | GOST | pgrok |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 91 · Excellent | 79 · Good |
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,527 | ★ 3,649 |
| First released | 2017 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Chisel, ngrok | ngrok |
What are GOST and pgrok?
GOST
GOST is an open-source command-line tool that provides flexible secure tunneling and proxying with support for many protocols. It is self-hosted to build relay chains and forward traffic.
- Multi-protocol tunneling
- Relay chaining
- Port forwarding
- Single binary
pgrok
pgrok is an open-source, self-hosted alternative to ngrok for exposing local web servers to the internet via secure tunnels. It uses SSH for transport and is simple to deploy.
- SSH-based tunneling
- Self-hosted server
- Custom subdomains
- Lightweight Go binary
GOST vs pgrok: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. GOST is the more established project (first released 2017), while pgrok arrived in 2023. GOST has the considerably larger community, at 7,527 GitHub stars versus 3,649.
Why pick each one
Choose GOST if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 7.5k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Choose pgrok if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is GOST or pgrok better?
Neither is universally better. GOST has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are GOST and pgrok free and open-source?
Yes. GOST is licensed under MIT and pgrok under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run GOST and pgrok with Docker?
GOST: yes. pgrok: yes.