tunnelmole vs zrok
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
zrok
Open-source sharing platform built on OpenZiti
| Feature | tunnelmole | zrok |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 66 · Good | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker, source | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,892 | ★ 4,720 |
| First released | 2021 | 2022 |
| Replaces | ngrok, localtunnel | ngrok |
What are tunnelmole and zrok?
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
zrok
zrok is an open-source peer-to-peer sharing platform built on the OpenZiti zero-trust network. It lets you share local web servers, files, and TCP services with public or private access.
- Public and private sharing
- Built on OpenZiti
- Self-hostable instances
- Frontend for web and TCP
tunnelmole vs zrok: key differences
Tunnelmole is written in TypeScript, while zrok is built with Go. Licensing differs — MIT for tunnelmole versus Apache-2.0 for zrok. Tunnelmole is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for zrok. Zrok has the considerably larger community, at 4,720 GitHub stars versus 1,892.
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 zrok if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.7k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is tunnelmole or zrok better?
Neither is universally better. zrok 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 zrok free and open-source?
Yes. tunnelmole is licensed under MIT and zrok under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run tunnelmole and zrok with Docker?
tunnelmole: yes. zrok: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, tunnelmole or zrok?
tunnelmole has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for zrok. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.