SHSelfHostIndex

GOST vs RustDesk

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?
GO GOST Versatile secure tunneling and proxy toolkit VS RU RustDesk Open-source remote desktop alternative to TeamViewer
FeatureGOSTRustDesk
CategoryRemote Access & VPNRemote Access & VPN
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguageGoRust
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM64 MB256 MB
Deploymentbinary, dockerdocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 7,255★ 119,867
First released20172021
ReplacesChisel, ngrokTeamViewer, AnyDesk

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
GOST details

Choose RustDesk if…

  • Easy self-hosted server
  • Works everywhere
RustDesk details

Frequently asked questions

Is GOST or RustDesk better?

RustDesk is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider GOST if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are GOST and RustDesk free and open-source?

Yes. GOST is licensed under MIT and RustDesk under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run GOST and RustDesk with Docker?

GOST: yes. RustDesk: yes.

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