head to head · open source
frp vs pivpn
frp has 110,434 GitHub stars, 15,305 forks, 48 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. pivpn has 8,063 stars, 683 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. frp leads on adoption by 1,270% (110,434 vs 8,063 stars). frp is written in Go under Apache-2.0; pivpn is written in Shell under MIT. frp has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, pivpn 8%. frp 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 | pivpn | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 110K | ★ 8.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-08-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 683 |
| 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 pivpn if
- You want the pivpn feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and pivpn 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 pivpn
[!WARNING] PiVPN is maintained on a best effort basis, please read more about it here. Previous announcement is here. PIVPN.IO DOCUMENTATION PiVPN is a set of shell scripts developed to easily turn your Raspberry Pi (TM) into a VPN server using two free, open source protocols: WireGuard OpenVPN This script's primary mission in life is to allow a user to have as cost effective as possible VPN at home without being a technical wizard, hence the design of PiVPN to work on a Raspberry Pi ($35) with a one command installer followed by easy management of the VPN with the 'pivpn' command. That being said... PiVPN…
read the full pivpn overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frp or pivpn more popular?
frp has 110,434 GitHub stars and pivpn has 8,063. frp has the larger community by that measure.
Are frp and pivpn free?
Both are open source. frp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pivpn under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frp and pivpn?
frp is written in Go and pivpn 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 pivpn?
Choose frp if you want the larger community (110,434 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pivpn if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.