head to head · open source
nginx vs MasterDnsVPN
nginx has 31,691 GitHub stars, 8,307 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. MasterDnsVPN has 7,036 stars, 799 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 22 days ago. nginx leads on adoption by 350% (31,691 vs 7,036 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 11%. 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 | MasterDnsVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 7.0K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-08-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 799 |
| 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 is the official open source repository for the NGINX web server and its load balancer, reverse proxy, API gateway and content cache roles, written in C under the BSD 2 Clause licence and aimed at system administrators, DevOps engineers and platform teams who need to serve, balance and protect their own HTTP traffic.
read the full nginx overview →
About MasterDnsVPN
MasterDnsVPN is a Go based DNS tunneling VPN that carries TCP traffic inside DNS queries and responses, built for censorship bypass in networks where normal VPN transports are blocked, and aimed at self hosters, researchers and users in heavily filtered environments.
read the full MasterDnsVPN overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nginx or MasterDnsVPN more popular?
nginx has 31,691 GitHub stars and MasterDnsVPN has 7,036. 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 (31,691 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose MasterDnsVPN if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.