expose vs RPort
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?
expose
Beautiful, fully open-source tunnel to localhost
VS
RPort
Remote management of computers behind firewalls
| Feature | expose | RPort |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,567 | ★ 20 |
| First released | 2020 | 2020 |
| Replaces | ngrok | TeamViewer, ngrok |
Why pick each one
Choose expose if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in PHP
Choose RPort if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is expose or RPort better?
Neither is universally better. expose has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are expose and RPort free and open-source?
Yes. expose is licensed under MIT and RPort under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run expose and RPort with Docker?
expose: yes. RPort: yes.