head to head · open source
openvpn-install vs cloudflared
openvpn-install has 16,138 GitHub stars, 3,339 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. cloudflared has 15,853 stars, 1,452 forks, 545 open issues and last shipped yesterday. openvpn-install leads on adoption by 2% (16,138 vs 15,853 stars). openvpn-install is written in Shell under MIT; cloudflared is written in Go under Apache-2.0. openvpn-install has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, cloudflared 9%. cloudflared 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
| openvpn-install | cloudflared | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 16K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Shell | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick openvpn-install if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cloudflared if
- You want the cloudflared feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and cloudflared fits your workflow better
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 →
About cloudflared
cloudflared is the open source command line client and tunneling daemon for Cloudflare Tunnel, a Go program under the Apache 2.0 licence that proxies traffic from the Cloudflare network to your origins so a webserver can stay closed to the public internet, and it is aimed at operators, platform teams and developers who need to publish HTTP services or reach private origins without opening inbound firewall ports.
read the full cloudflared overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is openvpn-install or cloudflared more popular?
openvpn-install has 16,138 GitHub stars and cloudflared has 15,853. openvpn-install has the larger community by that measure.
Are openvpn-install and cloudflared free?
Both are open source. openvpn-install is licensed under MIT and cloudflared under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between openvpn-install and cloudflared?
openvpn-install is written in Shell and cloudflared 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, openvpn-install or cloudflared?
Choose openvpn-install if you want the larger community (16,138 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose cloudflared if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.