NPS vs Pangolin
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?
NPS
Lightweight proxy server for intranet penetration
VS
Pangolin
Self-hosted tunneled reverse proxy with identity access
| Feature | NPS | Pangolin |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 34,157 | ★ 22,062 |
| First released | 2019 | 2024 |
| Replaces | ngrok | Cloudflare Tunnel |
Why pick each one
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
Choose Pangolin if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 22.1k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is NPS or Pangolin better?
Neither is universally better. NPS has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are NPS and Pangolin free and open-source?
Yes. NPS is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Pangolin under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run NPS and Pangolin with Docker?
NPS: yes. Pangolin: yes.