Nginx Proxy Manager 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?
FeatureNginx Proxy ManagerNPS
CategoryReverse Proxy & GatewaysReverse Proxy & Gateways
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptGo
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB64 MB
Deploymentdockerdocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 33,804★ 34,157
First released20192019
ReplacesCloudflarengrok

Why pick each one

Choose Nginx Proxy Manager if…

  • Beginner-friendly
  • Free certificates built in
Nginx Proxy Manager 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 Nginx Proxy Manager or NPS better?

Neither is universally better. NPS has the larger community, while Nginx Proxy Manager is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Nginx Proxy Manager and NPS free and open-source?

Yes. Nginx Proxy Manager is licensed under MIT and NPS under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Nginx Proxy Manager and NPS with Docker?

Nginx Proxy Manager: yes. NPS: yes.

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