head to head · open source
amnezia-client vs pomerium
amnezia-client has 15,351 GitHub stars, 1,183 forks, 1,126 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pomerium has 5,027 stars, 359 forks, 159 open issues and last shipped yesterday. amnezia-client leads on adoption by 205% (15,351 vs 5,027 stars). amnezia-client is written in C++ under GPL-3.0; pomerium is written in Go under Apache-2.0. amnezia-client has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, pomerium 7%. pomerium was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (vpn), 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.
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Side by side
| amnezia-client | pomerium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.2K | ⑂ 359 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick amnezia-client if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pomerium if
- You want the pomerium 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 pomerium fits your workflow better
About amnezia-client
Amnezia VPN Client is an open source, GPL 3.0 licensed VPN client for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS that connects to a VPN and also deploys a self hosted VPN server onto hardware the user already controls.
read the full amnezia-client overview →
About pomerium
Pomerium is an identity and context aware access proxy, written in Go and released under the Apache 2.0 licence, that builds secure, clientless connections to internal web applications and other services without a corporate VPN.
read the full pomerium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is amnezia-client or pomerium more popular?
amnezia-client has 15,351 GitHub stars and pomerium has 5,027. amnezia-client has the larger community by that measure.
Are amnezia-client and pomerium free?
Both are open source. amnezia-client is licensed under GPL-3.0 and pomerium under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between amnezia-client and pomerium?
amnezia-client is written in C++ and pomerium 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, amnezia-client or pomerium?
Choose amnezia-client if you want the larger community (15,351 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose pomerium if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.