head to head · open source
nginx vs lightway-core
nginx has 32,104 GitHub stars, 8,399 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. lightway-core has 627 stars, 74 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. nginx leads on adoption by 5,020% (32,104 vs 627 stars). nginx is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; lightway-core is written in C under GPL-2.0. nginx has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, lightway-core 12%. nginx 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 | lightway-core | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 627 |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | C | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-09 | 2026-04-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.4K | ⑂ 74 |
| 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 lightway-core if
- You want the lightway-core feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and lightway-core 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 lightway-core
= Lightway Core ifdef::env github[] :warning caption: :warning: endif::[] [WARNING] ==== Lightway C is no longer under active development. The repository remains unarchived for those who wish to use it for research purposes, but we strongly encourage the use of Rust], as it continues to be actively maintained and improved. ==== Lightway Core is a modern VPN protocol by ExpressVPN, to deliver a VPN experience that’s faster, more secure, and more reliable. == ExpressVPN One of the world’s largest providers of VPN services, ExpressVPN enables users to protect their privacy and security online with just a few…
read the full lightway-core overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nginx or lightway-core more popular?
nginx has 32,104 GitHub stars and lightway-core has 627. nginx has the larger community by that measure.
Are nginx and lightway-core free?
Both are open source. nginx is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and lightway-core under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nginx and lightway-core?
nginx is written in C and lightway-core 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 lightway-core?
Choose nginx if you want the larger community (32,104 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose lightway-core if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.