head to head · open source
frp vs pdns
frp has 109,575 GitHub stars, 15,222 forks, 48 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. pdns has 4,473 stars, 1,026 forks, 932 open issues and last shipped yesterday. frp leads on adoption by 2,350% (109,575 vs 4,473 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 | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-22 |
| 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 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 pdns
PowerDNS (pdns) is a single C++ source repository containing three distinct DNS products — the PowerDNS Authoritative Server, the PowerDNS Recursor, and dnsdist, a DNS load balancer — and it is aimed at network and infrastructure operators who run DNS themselves.
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Frequently asked questions
Is frp or pdns more popular?
frp has 109,575 GitHub stars and pdns has 4,473. 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 (109,575 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.