head to head · open source
cloudflared vs SoftEtherVPN
cloudflared has 16,043 GitHub stars, 1,468 forks, 545 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. SoftEtherVPN has 13,613 stars, 2,782 forks, 296 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. cloudflared leads on adoption by 18% (16,043 vs 13,613 stars). cloudflared is written in Go under Apache-2.0; SoftEtherVPN is written in C under Apache-2.0. cloudflared has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, SoftEtherVPN 20%. cloudflared 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 | SoftEtherVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 14K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 2.8K |
| 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 SoftEtherVPN if
- You want the SoftEtherVPN feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and SoftEtherVPN 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 SoftEtherVPN
SoftEther VPN is an open source, cross platform, multi protocol VPN server and client, written in C and licensed under Apache 2.0, intended for administrators and self hosters who need one program to serve many VPN protocols instead of running several separate daemons.
read the full SoftEtherVPN overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cloudflared or SoftEtherVPN more popular?
cloudflared has 16,043 GitHub stars and SoftEtherVPN has 13,613. cloudflared has the larger community by that measure.
Are cloudflared and SoftEtherVPN free?
Both are open source. cloudflared is licensed under Apache-2.0 and SoftEtherVPN under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cloudflared and SoftEtherVPN?
cloudflared is written in Go and SoftEtherVPN 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 SoftEtherVPN?
Choose cloudflared if you want the larger community (16,043 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose SoftEtherVPN if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.