Alternatives to frp
Reach private network services through a reverse proxy. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
frp
Reach private network services through a reverse proxy.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as frp.
Cloudflare Tunnel
Exposes a service on your machine to the internet through Cloudflare without opening a single port in your firewall.
Cloudflare Tunnel needs no server of your own and opens no inbound ports, but requires a Cloudflare account and domain, and your traffic passes through Cloudflare.
ngrok
A tunnelling agent and gateway that exposes a local app to the internet with request inspection.
ngrok gives a public URL for a local app in one command with request inspection, but it is closed source and traffic is routed through ngrok's service.
bore
Forward a local TCP port through a remote server.
bore is a small MIT-licensed, self-hostable tunnel for forwarding a local TCP port through a remote server, with fewer options than frp.
Chisel
Fast TCP and UDP tunnel carried over HTTP and secured with SSH.
Chisel carries TCP and UDP tunnels over HTTP secured with SSH in a single static binary, and works through HTTP proxies and restrictive egress filtering.
wstunnel
Carry network traffic through a WebSocket tunnel.
wstunnel carries traffic through a WebSocket tunnel between a local client and a remote endpoint, and still requires configuring both ends and access controls.
zrok
An open-source tunneling tool for sharing local services and files publicly or privately, built on OpenZiti.
zrok is an open-source tunnel built on OpenZiti offering public or private sharing, hosted or self-hosted, but self-hosting means running OpenZiti infrastructure.
Tunnelmole
An open-source tunneling tool that gives a server running on localhost a public HTTPS URL.
Tunnelmole is an open-source, optionally self-hostable tool that gives a local port a public HTTPS URL with one command, and needs Node.js on Windows without WSL.
Pinggy
A tunneling service that gives localhost a public URL over SSH, with a web debugger for traffic.
Pinggy is a hosted freemium service that tunnels over plain SSH without installing a client, but it is not self-hostable and free URLs change.
Also worth comparing
These listings name frp as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Ligolo-ng
Tunnelling and pivoting tool that presents a real TUN interface.
frp is an Apache-licensed reverse proxy that exposes services behind NAT through a reachable server, aimed at publishing services more than pivoting during authorised tests.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Nginx Proxy Manager
Browser interface for Nginx reverse proxy hosts with automatic Let's Encrypt certificates.
Pomerium
An identity-aware reverse proxy that gives secure access to internal applications without a VPN.
Traefik
Reverse proxy that discovers services automatically from Docker, Kubernetes and more.
LocalXpose
A hosted tunneling service with a client binary that exposes local servers to the internet.
Nginx
Web server, reverse proxy, cache and load balancer.
