head to head · open source
nginx vs openvpn-install
nginx has 32,033 GitHub stars, 8,410 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. openvpn-install has 16,178 stars, 3,335 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. nginx leads on adoption by 98% (32,033 vs 16,178 stars). nginx is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; openvpn-install is written in Shell under MIT. nginx has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, openvpn-install 21%. 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 | openvpn-install | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 16K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.4K | ⑂ 3.3K |
| 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 openvpn-install if
- You want the openvpn-install feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and openvpn-install 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 openvpn-install
openvpn install OpenVPN installer for Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS, Amazon Linux, Arch Linux, Oracle Linux, Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux. This script will let you setup and manage your own secure VPN server in just a few seconds. What is this? This script is meant to be run on your own server, whether it's a VPS or a dedicated server, or even a computer at home. Once set up, you will be able to generate client configuration files for every device you want to connect. Internet routing, access between VPN clients, and access to selected server side networks can be configured independently. By default…
read the full openvpn-install overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nginx or openvpn-install more popular?
nginx has 32,033 GitHub stars and openvpn-install has 16,178. nginx has the larger community by that measure.
Are nginx and openvpn-install free?
Both are open source. nginx is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and openvpn-install under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nginx and openvpn-install?
nginx is written in C and openvpn-install in Shell. 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-install?
Choose nginx if you want the larger community (32,033 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose openvpn-install if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.