head to head · open source
frp vs pomerium
frp has 110,566 GitHub stars, 15,318 forks, 48 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. pomerium has 5,103 stars, 371 forks, 159 open issues and last shipped yesterday. frp leads on adoption by 2,067% (110,566 vs 5,103 stars). frp is written in Go under Apache-2.0; pomerium is written in Go under Apache-2.0. frp has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, pomerium 7%. pomerium was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (go, 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 | pomerium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 111K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-10 | 2026-11-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 371 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick frp if
- You weight community size — 111K 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 pomerium if
- You want the pomerium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and pomerium 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 pomerium
[ ][godocs] Pomerium is an identity and context aware reverse proxy. Pomerium builds secure, clientless connections to internal web apps and other services without a corporate VPN. Pomerium is: Easier with clientless access. Faster by being tunnel free and deployed where your apps and services are. Safer because every single action is verified before allowed to execute. Tailored to your organization’s needs by integrating all data for context aware access. It’s not a VPN alternative – it’s the trusted, foolproof way to protect your business. Want a hosted control plane and management GUI? Give Pomerium Zero a…
read the full pomerium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frp or pomerium more popular?
frp has 110,566 GitHub stars and pomerium has 5,103. frp has the larger community by that measure.
Are frp and pomerium free?
Both are open source. frp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pomerium under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frp and pomerium?
frp is written in Go and pomerium in Go. 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 pomerium?
Choose frp if you want the larger community (110,566 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pomerium if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.