tunnelmole vs pgrok
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | tunnelmole | pgrok |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 66 · Good | 79 · Good |
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker, source | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,892 | ★ 3,649 |
| First released | 2021 | 2023 |
| Replaces | ngrok, localtunnel | ngrok |
What are tunnelmole and pgrok?
tunnelmole
Tunnelmole is an open-source tunneling tool that gives local web servers a public URL. The client and server are both open source so the entire service can be self-hosted.
- Public URLs for local apps
- Self-hostable server
- No signup needed
- Cross-platform client
pgrok
pgrok is an open-source, self-hosted alternative to ngrok for exposing local web servers to the internet via secure tunnels. It uses SSH for transport and is simple to deploy.
- SSH-based tunneling
- Self-hosted server
- Custom subdomains
- Lightweight Go binary
tunnelmole vs pgrok: key differences
Tunnelmole is written in TypeScript, while pgrok is built with Go. Pgrok is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for tunnelmole. Tunnelmole is the more established project (first released 2021), while pgrok arrived in 2023.
Why pick each one
Choose tunnelmole if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.9k GitHub stars)
Choose pgrok if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is tunnelmole or pgrok better?
Neither is universally better. pgrok has the larger community, while tunnelmole is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are tunnelmole and pgrok free and open-source?
Yes. tunnelmole is licensed under MIT and pgrok under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run tunnelmole and pgrok with Docker?
tunnelmole: yes. pgrok: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, tunnelmole or pgrok?
pgrok has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for tunnelmole. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.