freenginx vs PageKite

freenginx is an effort to preserve free and open development of server software used for HTTP, mail, and TCP/UDP proxying. Its HTTP server can serve static files, reverse proxy with caching, balance load, and provide fault tolerance. It supports SSL/TLS SNI, HTTP/2, and HTTP/3, along with access controls based on client IP address, HTTP Basic authentication, or a subrequest result. Cached and accelerated connections are available for FastCGI, uwsgi, SCGI, and memcached servers. The mail proxy supports IMAP, POP3, and SMTP authentication methods with SSL and STARTTLS/STLS. TCP and UDP proxying includes load balancing, fault tolerance, and client-address access control. The process design uses one master and several workers running under an unprivileged user. Configuration can be reloaded and the executable upgraded without interrupting client service. Source and documentation are distributed under a 2-clause BSD-like license. The software is self-hosted and uses file-based configuration; downloads include source, Windows builds, and mainline and stable versions.

PageKite exposes a server running on localhost to the public Internet through global front-end relays, working as a dynamic tunneled reverse proxy. It supports HTTP and HTTPS servers, SSH, and some other TCP-based protocols. The maker lists home-hosted sites, SSH access, embedded-device access, webhooks, APIs, and remote debugging as uses. A single pagekite.py command can make a server visible. Accounts begin with one pagekite.me DNS name, allow unlimited subdomains, and support customer domains through CNAME records. SSL is enabled by default for pagekite.me names, with end-to-end TLS and wildcard relay certificates also supported. Relays are listed in the United States, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and Australia, with automatic relay selection. PageKite is open-source software using AGPLv3-or-later for pagekite.py and most releases. Platforms include Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, web, API, and self-hosted deployments. Pricing is freemium, with a free plan, paid plans from $5.99/mo, and a 31-day trial.