head to head · open source
openvpn-install vs pomerium
openvpn-install has 16,156 GitHub stars, 3,338 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. pomerium has 5,027 stars, 359 forks, 159 open issues and last shipped yesterday. openvpn-install leads on adoption by 221% (16,156 vs 5,027 stars). openvpn-install is written in Shell under MIT; pomerium is written in Go under Apache-2.0. openvpn-install has attracted 21% 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.
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 | pomerium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Shell | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 359 |
| 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 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 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 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 openvpn-install or pomerium more popular?
openvpn-install has 16,156 GitHub stars and pomerium has 5,027. openvpn-install has the larger community by that measure.
Are openvpn-install and pomerium free?
Both are open source. openvpn-install is licensed under MIT and pomerium under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between openvpn-install and pomerium?
openvpn-install is written in Shell 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, openvpn-install or pomerium?
Choose openvpn-install if you want the larger community (16,156 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pomerium if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.