head to head · open source
nginx vs openvpn-install
nginx has 31,681 GitHub stars, 8,302 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. openvpn-install has 16,133 stars, 3,336 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. nginx leads on adoption by 96% (31,681 vs 16,133 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.
← all 15422 open source comparisons
Side by side
| nginx | openvpn-install | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 16K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 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 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-install
openvpn install is an MIT licensed Bash script that installs and manages a self hosted OpenVPN server on Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS, Amazon Linux, Arch Linux, Oracle Linux, Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux, aimed at anyone who runs their own VPS, dedicated server or home machine and wants to generate VPN client configuration files per device.
read the full openvpn-install 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-install more popular?
nginx has 31,681 GitHub stars and openvpn-install has 16,133. 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 (31,681 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.