head to head · open source
frp vs trickster
frp has 109,748 GitHub stars, 15,233 forks, 48 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. trickster has 2,092 stars, 190 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. frp leads on adoption by 5,146% (109,748 vs 2,092 stars). frp is written in Go under Apache-2.0; trickster is written in Go under Apache-2.0. frp has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, trickster 9%. trickster was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (http-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 | trickster | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 110K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-10-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 190 |
| 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 trickster if
- You want the trickster 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 trickster 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 trickster
Trickster is an open source Go HTTP reverse proxy cache and time series database query accelerator for operators who want faster dashboards and a hardened edge in front of HTTP services.
read the full trickster overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frp or trickster more popular?
frp has 109,748 GitHub stars and trickster has 2,092. frp has the larger community by that measure.
Are frp and trickster free?
Both are open source. frp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and trickster under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frp and trickster?
frp is written in Go and trickster 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 trickster?
Choose frp if you want the larger community (109,748 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose trickster if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.