head to head · open source
frp vs awl
frp has 110,484 GitHub stars, 15,306 forks, 48 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. awl has 761 stars, 53 forks, 35 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. frp leads on adoption by 14,418% (110,484 vs 761 stars). frp is written in Go under Apache-2.0; awl is written in Go under MPL-2.0. frp has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, awl 7%. awl was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (p2p, proxy), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| frp | awl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 110K | ★ 761 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-11-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 53 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick frp if
- You weight community size — 110K 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 awl if
- You want the awl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and awl fits your workflow better
About frp
frp README 中文文档 Sponsors frp is an open source project with its ongoing development made possible entirely by the support of our awesome sponsors. If you'd like to join them, please consider sponsoring frp's development. Gold Sponsors High performance residential and ISP proxies for developers 90M+ residential IPs worldwide. Rotating IPs, sticky sessions, and traffic that never expires. From $0.55/GB. Use RAPID10 for 10% off. Try it for free. The complete IDE crafted for professional Go developers The sovereign cloud that puts you in control An open source, self hosted alternative to public clouds, built for…
About awl
Table of contents About Why Anywherelan Features Screenshots How it works Security Reproducible builds Installation The web UI Android Windows ( awl tray ) macOS Linux desktop ( awl tray ) Linux server ( awl ) Connecting devices Using devices as SOCKS5 proxy VPN gateway (full tunnel exit node) Configuration Config file location Example config Monitoring Terminal based client Common examples Upgrading Platform notes & known limitations Contributing License About Anywherelan (awl for brevity) is a peer to peer mesh VPN for connecting your own devices to each other, at the IP level, from wherever they are. A laptop…
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Frequently asked questions
Is frp or awl more popular?
frp has 110,484 GitHub stars and awl has 761. frp has the larger community by that measure.
Are frp and awl free?
Both are open source. frp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and awl under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frp and awl?
frp is written in Go and awl in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, frp or awl?
Choose frp if you want the larger community (110,484 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose awl if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.