head to head · open source
frp vs pomerium
frp has 109,663 GitHub stars, 15,227 forks, 48 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. pomerium has 5,020 stars, 357 forks, 159 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. frp leads on adoption by 2,085% (109,663 vs 5,020 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 | ★ 110K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 357 |
| 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 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 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 pomerium
Pomerium is an identity and context aware access proxy, written in Go and released under the Apache 2.0 licence, that builds secure, clientless connections to internal web applications and other services without a corporate VPN.
read the full pomerium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frp or pomerium more popular?
frp has 109,663 GitHub stars and pomerium has 5,020. 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 (109,663 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.