head to head · open source
frp vs hestiacp
frp has 109,545 GitHub stars, 15,219 forks, 48 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. hestiacp has 4,503 stars, 945 forks, 146 open issues and last shipped yesterday. frp leads on adoption by 2,333% (109,545 vs 4,503 stars). frp is written in Go under Apache-2.0; hestiacp is written in Shell under GPL-3.0. frp has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, hestiacp 21%. hestiacp 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
| frp | hestiacp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 110K | ★ 4.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 945 |
| 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 hestiacp if
- You want the hestiacp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and hestiacp fits your workflow better
About frp
frp is a fast reverse proxy written in Go that exposes a local server behind a NAT or firewall to the internet, built for operators and developers who need inbound access to machines they cannot port forward.
About hestiacp
Hestia Control Panel is a GPL 3.0, shell based control panel that gives Linux server administrators a web and command line interface for deploying and managing web domains, mail accounts, DNS zones, and databases on Debian and Ubuntu servers.
read the full hestiacp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frp or hestiacp more popular?
frp has 109,545 GitHub stars and hestiacp has 4,503. frp has the larger community by that measure.
Are frp and hestiacp free?
Both are open source. frp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and hestiacp under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frp and hestiacp?
frp is written in Go and hestiacp in Shell. 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 hestiacp?
Choose frp if you want the larger community (109,545 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose hestiacp if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.