head to head · open source
frp vs SoftEtherVPN
frp has 110,395 GitHub stars, 15,306 forks, 48 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SoftEtherVPN has 13,698 stars, 2,800 forks, 296 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. frp leads on adoption by 706% (110,395 vs 13,698 stars). frp is written in Go under Apache-2.0; SoftEtherVPN is written in C under Apache-2.0. frp has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, SoftEtherVPN 20%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| frp | SoftEtherVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 110K | ★ 14K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 2.8K |
| 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 SoftEtherVPN if
- You want the SoftEtherVPN feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and SoftEtherVPN 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 SoftEtherVPN
SoftEther VPN SoftEther VPN BOARD MEMBERS OF THIS REPOSITORY SOFTETHER VPN ADVANTAGES Installation For FreeBSD For Windows From binary installers (stable channel) Build from Source code Antivirus False Positive Detection About HTML5 based Modern Admin Console and JSON RPC API Suite Built in SoftEther VPN Server HTML5 Ajax based Web Administration Console Built in SoftEther Server VPN JSON RPC API Suite TO CIRCUMVENT YOUR GOVERNMENT'S FIREWALL RESTRICTION SOURCE CODE CONTRIBUTION DEAR SECURITY EXPERTS SoftEther VPN (Developer Edition Master Repository) An Open Source Cross platform Multi protocol VPN Program This…
read the full SoftEtherVPN overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Networking & Connectivity projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Networking & Connectivity field.
Frequently asked questions
Is frp or SoftEtherVPN more popular?
frp has 110,395 GitHub stars and SoftEtherVPN has 13,698. frp has the larger community by that measure.
Are frp and SoftEtherVPN free?
Both are open source. frp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and SoftEtherVPN under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frp and SoftEtherVPN?
frp is written in Go and SoftEtherVPN 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 SoftEtherVPN?
Choose frp if you want the larger community (110,395 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose SoftEtherVPN if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.