head to head · open source
Pangolin vs WireGuard
Pangolin has 22,792 GitHub stars, 788 forks, 128 open issues and last shipped yesterday. WireGuard has 717 stars, 312 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. Pangolin leads on adoption by 3,079% (22,792 vs 717 stars). Pangolin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; WireGuard is written in C under GPL-2.0. Pangolin has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, WireGuard 44%. Pangolin 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
| Pangolin | WireGuard | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 717 |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-05-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 788 | ⑂ 312 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Pangolin if
- You weight community size — 23K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick WireGuard if
- You want the WireGuard feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and WireGuard fits your workflow better
About Pangolin
Pangolin is an open source SASE platform written in TypeScript and built on WireGuard. It provides secure access and connectivity to applications, infrastructure, and AI workloads by combining a zero trust VPN, a zero trust reverse proxy, privileged access management, and an identity aware AI gateway under one identity and policy model. It belongs to the network security ecosystem, specifically self hosted remote access and SASE tooling.
read the full Pangolin overview →
About WireGuard
WireGuard's userspace tooling, packaged as wireguard tools, is the command line layer that configures WireGuard VPN tunnels, aimed at system administrators, distribution packagers and anyone who needs to bring a WireGuard interface up and down from a shell or an init system.
read the full WireGuard overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Pangolin or WireGuard more popular?
Pangolin has 22,792 GitHub stars and WireGuard has 717. Pangolin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Pangolin and WireGuard free?
Both are open source. Pangolin has no licence declared in this registry, and WireGuard is licensed under GPL-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Pangolin and WireGuard?
Pangolin is written in TypeScript and WireGuard 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, Pangolin or WireGuard?
Choose Pangolin if you want the larger community (22,792 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose WireGuard if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.