rathole vs RPort
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | rathole | RPort |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 75 · Good | 0 · At risk |
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Rust | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,252 | ★ 21 |
| First released | 2021 | 2020 |
| Replaces | ngrok, frp | TeamViewer, ngrok |
What are rathole and RPort?
rathole
rathole is a secure, stable, and high-performance reverse proxy for NAT traversal written in Rust. It is a lightweight alternative to frp with a small binary and low memory use.
- NAT traversal tunneling
- Tiny memory footprint
- Noise protocol encryption
- High connection capacity
RPort
RPort is an open-source remote management solution that lets you access and control servers and desktops behind firewalls. It provides tunnels, scripting, and a web UI.
- Remote access behind firewalls
- On-demand tunnels
- Script execution at scale
- Web management UI
rathole vs RPort: key differences
Rathole is written in Rust, while RPort is built with Go. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for rathole versus GPL-3.0 for RPort. Rathole is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for RPort. Rathole has the considerably larger community, at 14,252 GitHub stars versus 21.
Why pick each one
Choose rathole if…
- Tiny binary and memory use
- Simple TOML config
- Encrypted transport
Watch out for
- Fewer features than frp
- No web dashboard
Choose RPort if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is rathole or RPort better?
Neither is universally better. rathole has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are rathole and RPort free and open-source?
Yes. rathole is licensed under Apache-2.0 and RPort under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run rathole and RPort with Docker?
rathole: yes. RPort: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, rathole or RPort?
rathole has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for RPort. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.