head to head · open source
frp vs nginx
frp has 109,502 GitHub stars, 15,213 forks, 48 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. nginx has 31,681 stars, 8,302 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. frp leads on adoption by 246% (109,502 vs 31,681 stars). frp is written in Go under Apache-2.0; nginx is written in C under BSD-2-Clause. frp has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, nginx 26%. nginx was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (reverse-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 | nginx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 110K | ★ 32K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 8.3K |
| 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 nginx if
- You want the nginx feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and nginx 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 nginx
NGINX is the official open source repository for the NGINX web server and its load balancer, reverse proxy, API gateway and content cache roles, written in C under the BSD 2 Clause licence and aimed at system administrators, DevOps engineers and platform teams who need to serve, balance and protect their own HTTP traffic.
read the full nginx overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frp or nginx more popular?
frp has 109,502 GitHub stars and nginx has 31,681. frp has the larger community by that measure.
Are frp and nginx free?
Both are open source. frp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and nginx under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frp and nginx?
frp is written in Go and nginx 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, frp or nginx?
Choose frp if you want the larger community (109,502 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose nginx if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.