lego 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?
lego
Let's Encrypt and ACME client written in Go
VS
NPS
Lightweight proxy server for intranet penetration
| Feature | lego | NPS |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,789 | ★ 34,157 |
| First released | 2015 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Certbot | ngrok |
Why pick each one
Choose lego if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 9.8k GitHub stars
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
Frequently asked questions
Is lego or NPS better?
Neither is universally better. NPS has the larger community, while lego is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are lego and NPS free and open-source?
Yes. lego is licensed under MIT and NPS under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run lego and NPS with Docker?
lego: yes. NPS: yes.