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.
Not the right match-up?
tunnelmole
Open-source tunnel to expose local servers to the internet
VS
zrok
Open-source sharing platform built on OpenZiti
| Feature | tunnelmole | zrok |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | ★ 1,885 | ★ 4,611 |
| First released | 2021 | 2022 |
| Replaces | ngrok, localtunnel | ngrok |
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 (4.6k 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.