head to head · open source
nginx vs MasterDnsVPN
nginx has 32,045 GitHub stars, 8,387 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. MasterDnsVPN has 7,304 stars, 756 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. nginx leads on adoption by 339% (32,045 vs 7,304 stars). nginx is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; MasterDnsVPN is written in Go under MIT. nginx has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, MasterDnsVPN 10%. MasterDnsVPN 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 | MasterDnsVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 7.3K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.4K | ⑂ 756 |
| 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 MasterDnsVPN if
- You want the MasterDnsVPN feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and MasterDnsVPN 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 MasterDnsVPN
MasterDnsVPN Project 🔐 🇮🇷 فارسی 🇬🇧 English 🇷🇺 Русский 🇨🇳 中文 🇪🇸 Español 🇮🇹 Italiano MasterDnsVPN is a scientific and research oriented project for carrying TCP traffic through DNS queries and responses. In broad goal, it is similar to projects such as DNSTT or SlipStream, but it follows a fundamentally different structure and implementation approach. This system is designed around compatibility with many resolver behaviors and harsh network conditions, with the goal of preserving the highest possible stability and data delivery even in the worst cases. 📊 MasterDnsVPN Compared with Similar Projects ❌…
read the full MasterDnsVPN overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nginx or MasterDnsVPN more popular?
nginx has 32,045 GitHub stars and MasterDnsVPN has 7,304. nginx has the larger community by that measure.
Are nginx and MasterDnsVPN free?
Both are open source. nginx is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and MasterDnsVPN under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nginx and MasterDnsVPN?
nginx is written in C and MasterDnsVPN 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, nginx or MasterDnsVPN?
Choose nginx if you want the larger community (32,045 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose MasterDnsVPN if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.