Pangolin vs Pingora
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?
Pangolin
Self-hosted tunneled reverse proxy with identity access
VS
Pingora
Rust framework to build fast, reliable network services
| Feature | Pangolin | Pingora |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 22,062 | ★ 27,153 |
| First released | 2024 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Cloudflare Tunnel | Nginx |
Why pick each one
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
Choose Pingora if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Mature project with 27.2k GitHub stars
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Pangolin or Pingora better?
Neither is universally better. Pingora has the larger community, while Pangolin is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Pangolin and Pingora free and open-source?
Yes. Pangolin is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Pingora under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pangolin and Pingora with Docker?
Pangolin: yes. Pingora: check the project docs for container support.