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.
Not the right match-up?
rathole
Lightweight and high-performance reverse proxy for NAT traversal
VS
RPort
Remote management of computers behind firewalls
| Feature | rathole | RPort |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | ★ 13,999 | ★ 20 |
| First released | 2021 | 2020 |
| Replaces | ngrok, frp | TeamViewer, ngrok |
Why pick each one
Choose rathole if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 14k GitHub stars
- Written in Rust
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.