Pritunl vs WireGuard Portal
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Pritunl | WireGuard Portal |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 90 · Excellent | 85 · Excellent |
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,025 | ★ 1,823 |
| First released | 2013 | 2020 |
| Replaces | OpenVPN Access Server | OpenVPN Access Server |
What are Pritunl and WireGuard Portal?
Pritunl
Pritunl is an open-source VPN server that provides an enterprise-grade web interface on top of OpenVPN and WireGuard. It supports clustered deployments and SSO.
- Web UI over OpenVPN
- Clustered high availability
- SSO and MFA support
- Site-to-site links
WireGuard Portal
WireGuard Portal is a web management interface for WireGuard servers that supports multiple interfaces, LDAP, and OAuth authentication. It is aimed at organizational deployments.
- Multi-interface management
- LDAP and OAuth login
- Per-user peer config
- Email config delivery
Pritunl vs WireGuard Portal: key differences
Pritunl is written in Python, while WireGuard Portal is built with Go. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Pritunl versus MIT for WireGuard Portal. WireGuard Portal is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Pritunl. Pritunl is the more established project (first released 2013), while WireGuard Portal arrived in 2020. Pritunl has the considerably larger community, at 5,025 GitHub stars versus 1,823.
Why pick each one
Choose Pritunl if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 5k GitHub stars
- Written in Python
Choose WireGuard Portal if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Pritunl or WireGuard Portal better?
Neither is universally better. Pritunl has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Pritunl and WireGuard Portal free and open-source?
Yes. Pritunl is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and WireGuard Portal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pritunl and WireGuard Portal with Docker?
Pritunl: yes. WireGuard Portal: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Pritunl or WireGuard Portal?
WireGuard Portal has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Pritunl. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.