head to head · open source
cloudflared vs amnezia-client
cloudflared has 16,043 GitHub stars, 1,468 forks, 545 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. amnezia-client has 15,351 stars, 1,183 forks, 1,126 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cloudflared leads on adoption by 5% (16,043 vs 15,351 stars). cloudflared is written in Go under Apache-2.0; amnezia-client is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. cloudflared has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, amnezia-client 8%. amnezia-client 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
| cloudflared | amnezia-client | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cloudflared if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick amnezia-client if
- You want the amnezia-client feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and amnezia-client fits your workflow better
About cloudflared
cloudflared is the open source command line client and tunneling daemon for Cloudflare Tunnel, a Go program under the Apache 2.0 licence that proxies traffic from the Cloudflare network to your origins so a webserver can stay closed to the public internet, and it is aimed at operators, platform teams and developers who need to publish HTTP services or reach private origins without opening inbound firewall ports.
read the full cloudflared overview →
About amnezia-client
Amnezia VPN Client is an open source, GPL 3.0 licensed VPN client for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS that connects to a VPN and also deploys a self hosted VPN server onto hardware the user already controls.
read the full amnezia-client overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cloudflared or amnezia-client more popular?
cloudflared has 16,043 GitHub stars and amnezia-client has 15,351. cloudflared has the larger community by that measure.
Are cloudflared and amnezia-client free?
Both are open source. cloudflared is licensed under Apache-2.0 and amnezia-client under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cloudflared and amnezia-client?
cloudflared is written in Go and amnezia-client in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, cloudflared or amnezia-client?
Choose cloudflared if you want the larger community (16,043 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose amnezia-client if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.