head to head · open source
Bruno vs rustunnel
Bruno has 47,027 GitHub stars, 2,890 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rustunnel has 656 stars, 48 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. Bruno leads on adoption by 7,069% (47,027 vs 656 stars). Bruno is written in JavaScript under MIT; rustunnel is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. Bruno has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, rustunnel 7%. Bruno was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Bruno | rustunnel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 656 |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 48 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Bruno if
- You weight community size — 47K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick rustunnel if
- You want the rustunnel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and rustunnel fits your workflow better
About Bruno
Bruno is a lightweight, open source API client and IDE for exploring and testing APIs, built for developers and teams who want their request collections stored as plain text in a folder on their own filesystem rather than in a vendor's cloud.
read the full Bruno overview →
About rustunnel
rustunnel The open source tunnel that scales with you. Don't pay for idle time. Secure, Rust fast, and Pay as you go. Expose local services through a public server over encrypted WebSocket connections with TLS termination, HTTP/TCP proxying, a live dashboard, Prometheus metrics, and audit logging. You can self host or use our managed service. Using an AI agent? rustunnel ships an MCP server — one click setup for Cursor (then add your API token): For Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Windsurf, and others, see the agent integration guide or the agent manual at rustunnel.com/agents.md. Table of Contents Hosted service Ar…
read the full rustunnel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bruno or rustunnel more popular?
Bruno has 47,027 GitHub stars and rustunnel has 656. Bruno has the larger community by that measure.
Are Bruno and rustunnel free?
Both are open source. Bruno is licensed under MIT and rustunnel under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Bruno and rustunnel?
Bruno is written in JavaScript and rustunnel in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Bruno or rustunnel?
Choose Bruno if you want the larger community (47,027 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose rustunnel if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.