head to head · open source
goproxy vs coredns
goproxy has 17,135 GitHub stars, 3,094 forks, 143 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. coredns has 14,330 stars, 2,533 forks, 282 open issues and last shipped today. goproxy leads on adoption by 20% (17,135 vs 14,330 stars). goproxy is written in Go under GPL-3.0; coredns is written in Go under Apache-2.0. goproxy has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, coredns 18%. coredns 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
| goproxy | coredns | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 14K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-08-17 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 2.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick goproxy if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick coredns if
- You want the coredns 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 coredns fits your workflow better
About goproxy
goproxy is a GPL 3.0 licensed, Go based proxy server that provides HTTP(S), SOCKS5, ss, WebSocket, TCP and UDP proxying from a single program, intended for operators and developers who need forward, reverse, transparent, chained and NAT traversal proxying without wiring together several separate tools.
read the full goproxy overview →
About coredns
CoreDNS is a CNCF graduated DNS server and forwarder written in Go that resolves queries through a chain of plugins, aimed at platform and infrastructure engineers who run DNS for Kubernetes clusters, service discovery, or authoritative zones and need to extend its behaviour without forking the core.
read the full coredns 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 goproxy or coredns more popular?
goproxy has 17,135 GitHub stars and coredns has 14,330. goproxy has the larger community by that measure.
Are goproxy and coredns free?
Both are open source. goproxy is licensed under GPL-3.0 and coredns under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between goproxy and coredns?
goproxy is written in Go and coredns 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, goproxy or coredns?
Choose goproxy if you want the larger community (17,135 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose coredns if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.