head to head · open source
nginx-proxy vs OpenVPN
nginx-proxy has 19,933 GitHub stars, 3,038 forks, 327 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. OpenVPN has 14,761 stars, 3,424 forks, 226 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. nginx-proxy leads on adoption by 35% (19,933 vs 14,761 stars). nginx-proxy is written in Python under MIT; OpenVPN is written in C under a custom or non-standard licence. nginx-proxy has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, OpenVPN 23%. OpenVPN 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
| nginx-proxy | OpenVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 15K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | Python | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 3.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nginx-proxy if
- You weight community size — 20K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick OpenVPN if
- You want the OpenVPN feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and OpenVPN fits your workflow better
About nginx-proxy
nginx proxy nginx proxy sets up a container running nginx and docker gen. docker gen generates reverse proxy configs for nginx and reloads nginx when containers are started and stopped. See Automated Nginx Reverse Proxy for Docker for why you might want to use this. Usage To run it: Then start any containers (here an nginx container) you want proxied with an env var VIRTUAL HOST=subdomain.yourdomain.com Provided your DNS is setup to resolve foo.bar.com to the host running nginx proxy, a request to will then be routed to a container with the VIRTUAL HOST env var set to foo.bar.com (in this case, the your proxied…
read the full nginx-proxy overview →
About OpenVPN
OpenVPN A Secure tunneling daemon Copyright (C) 2002 2026 OpenVPN Inc. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation. To get the latest release of OpenVPN, go to: To Build and Install, tar zxf openvpn .tar.gz cd openvpn ./configure make make install or see the file INSTALL for more info. For information on how to build OpenVPN on/for Windows with MinGW or MSVC see README.cmake.md. For detailed information on OpenVPN, including examples, see the man page For a sample VPN…
read the full OpenVPN overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nginx-proxy or OpenVPN more popular?
nginx-proxy has 19,933 GitHub stars and OpenVPN has 14,761. nginx-proxy has the larger community by that measure.
Are nginx-proxy and OpenVPN free?
Both are open source. nginx-proxy is licensed under MIT, and OpenVPN has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between nginx-proxy and OpenVPN?
nginx-proxy is written in Python and OpenVPN 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, nginx-proxy or OpenVPN?
Choose nginx-proxy if you want the larger community (19,933 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose OpenVPN if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.