head to head · open source
nginx vs OpenVPN
nginx has 31,681 GitHub stars, 8,302 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. OpenVPN has 14,569 stars, 3,401 forks, 226 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nginx leads on adoption by 117% (31,681 vs 14,569 stars). nginx is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; OpenVPN is written in C under a custom or non-standard licence. nginx has attracted 26% 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. The two share 1 topic tag (security), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 15422 open source comparisons
Side by side
| nginx | OpenVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 15K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | Custom / other |
| Written in | C | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 3.4K |
| 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 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
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 OpenVPN
OpenVPN is open source VPN daemon. It provides secure tunneling for network connections. Project lives in Infrastructure & Operations / Networking & Connectivity ecosystem. Tagline says Zero Trust VPN solutions for secure business networking. GitHub description says OpenVPN is an open source VPN daemon. Repository language is C. GitHub license field says NOASSERTION, while README states GNU General Public License version 2. README states copyright 2002 2026 OpenVPN Inc.
read the full OpenVPN overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Networking & Connectivity projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Networking & Connectivity field.
Frequently asked questions
Is nginx or OpenVPN more popular?
nginx has 31,681 GitHub stars and OpenVPN has 14,569. nginx has the larger community by that measure.
Are nginx and OpenVPN free?
Both are open source. nginx is licensed under BSD-2-Clause, and OpenVPN has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between nginx and OpenVPN?
nginx is written in C 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 or OpenVPN?
Choose nginx if you want the larger community (31,681 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose OpenVPN if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.