head to head · open source
frp vs vulcain
frp has 110,568 GitHub stars, 15,317 forks, 48 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. vulcain has 3,593 stars, 102 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. frp leads on adoption by 2,977% (110,568 vs 3,593 stars). frp is written in Go under Apache-2.0; vulcain is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. frp has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, vulcain 3%. 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 | vulcain | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 111K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-10 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 102 |
| 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 vulcain if
- You want the vulcain feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and vulcain 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 vulcain
Vulcain is a brand new protocol using Preload hints and the 103 Early Hints status code to create fast and idiomatic client driven REST APIs. An open source gateway server (a module for the Caddy web server), which you can put on top of any existing web API to instantly turn it into a Vulcain compatible API is also provided! It supports hypermedia APIs (e.g. any API created with API Platform) but also any "legacy" API by documenting its relations using OpenAPI. [tabs] Preload Preload + Early Hints Server push [/tabs] Grab What You Need... Burn The REST! Introduction Pushing Relations Filtering Resources Gateway…
read the full vulcain overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frp or vulcain more popular?
frp has 110,568 GitHub stars and vulcain has 3,593. frp has the larger community by that measure.
Are frp and vulcain free?
Both are open source. frp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and vulcain under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between frp and vulcain?
frp is written in Go and vulcain 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 vulcain?
Choose frp if you want the larger community (110,568 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose vulcain if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.