relayd vs NPS

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted reverse proxy & gateways options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeaturerelaydNPS
CategoryReverse Proxy & GatewaysReverse Proxy & Gateways
LicenseISCGPL-3.0
LanguageCGo
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM32 MB64 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, sourcedocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 3,851★ 34,157
First released20062019
ReplacesHAProxy, F5 BIG-IPngrok

Why pick each one

Choose relayd if…

  • Tightly integrated with OpenBSD
  • Very lightweight
relayd details

Choose NPS if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 34.2k GitHub stars
  • Written in Go
NPS details

Frequently asked questions

Is relayd or NPS better?

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

Are relayd and NPS free and open-source?

Yes. relayd is licensed under ISC and NPS under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run relayd and NPS with Docker?

relayd: check the project docs for container support. NPS: yes.

Related comparisons