head to head · open source
frp vs pdns
frp has 110,468 GitHub stars, 15,305 forks, 48 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. pdns has 4,514 stars, 1,036 forks, 932 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. frp leads on adoption by 2,347% (110,468 vs 4,514 stars). frp is written in Go under Apache-2.0; pdns is written in C++ under GPL-2.0. frp has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, pdns 23%. pdns 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 | pdns | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 110K | ★ 4.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-11-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 pdns if
- You want the pdns feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and pdns 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 pdns
PowerDNS is copyright © by PowerDNS.COM BV and lots of contributors, using the GNU GPLv2 license (see NOTICE for the exact license and exception used). All documentation can be found on This file may lag behind at times. For most recent updates, always check Another good place to look for information is: To file bugs, head towards: But please check if the issue is already reported there first. DOCKER This README is mirrored from GitHub to dockerhub. For information about our Docker images, please refer to SOURCE CODE / GIT Source code is available on GitHub: This repository contains the sources for the PowerDNS…
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Frequently asked questions
Is frp or pdns more popular?
frp has 110,468 GitHub stars and pdns has 4,514. frp has the larger community by that measure.
Are frp and pdns free?
Both are open source. frp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pdns under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frp and pdns?
frp is written in Go and pdns 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 pdns?
Choose frp if you want the larger community (110,468 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pdns if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.