head to head · open source
nginx vs amnezia-client
nginx has 32,033 GitHub stars, 8,410 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. amnezia-client has 15,663 stars, 1,255 forks, 1,126 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nginx leads on adoption by 105% (32,033 vs 15,663 stars). nginx is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; amnezia-client is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. nginx has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, amnezia-client 8%. amnezia-client 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 | amnezia-client | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 16K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.4K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nginx if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick amnezia-client if
- You want the amnezia-client feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and amnezia-client fits your workflow better
About nginx
NGINX (pronounced "engine x" or "en jin eks") is the world's most popular Web Server, high performance Load Balancer, Reverse Proxy, API Gateway and Content Cache. NGINX is free and open source software, distributed under the terms of a simplified 2 clause BSD like license. Enterprise distributions, commercial support and training are available from F5, Inc. [!IMPORTANT] The goal of this README is to provide a basic, structured introduction to NGINX for novice users. Please refer to the full NGINX documentation for detailed information on installing, building, configuring, debugging, and more. These…
read the full nginx overview →
About amnezia-client
Amnezia VPN The best client for self hosted VPN English) Русский Amnezia is an open source VPN client, with a key feature that enables you to deploy your own VPN server on your server. Website Alt website link Documentation Troubleshooting [!TIP] If the Amnezia website is blocked in your region, you can use an Alternative website link. All releases Features Very easy to use enter your IP address, SSH login, password and Amnezia will automatically install VPN docker containers to your server and connect to the VPN. Classic VPN protocols: OpenVPN, WireGuard and IKEv2 protocols. Protocols with traffic Masking…
read the full amnezia-client overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nginx or amnezia-client more popular?
nginx has 32,033 GitHub stars and amnezia-client has 15,663. nginx has the larger community by that measure.
Are nginx and amnezia-client free?
Both are open source. nginx is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and amnezia-client under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nginx and amnezia-client?
nginx is written in C and amnezia-client 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 or amnezia-client?
Choose nginx if you want the larger community (32,033 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose amnezia-client if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.