frp vs Pound
frp
gofrp.orgPound
github.comSide by side
| Figure | frp | Pound |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Reverse Proxy Software | 8.2 (#12) | 7.1 (#25) |
| License | The GitHub repository identifies the project license as Apache-2.0. | Pound is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 3 or any later version. |
| Purpose | frp is a high-performance reverse proxy for exposing intranet services to the public network through nodes with public IP addresses. | Pound is a reverse proxy, load balancer, and HTTPS front end for web servers. |
| Security | Client and server authentication supports token and OIDC methods, with token authentication as the default. | The project describes Pound as a small program that can run setuid/setgid or in a chroot jail and does not access the hard disk except to read certificate files at startup when required. |
Plans
In their own words
frp
frp is a free, self-hosted reverse proxy for making intranet services reachable from the public network through nodes with public IP addresses. It supports TCP, UDP, HTTP, and HTTPS proxying, while client-server communication also supports QUIC, KCP, WebSocket, and other protocols. Its XTCP mode uses P2P hole punching so successful connections send traffic directly rather than through frps, but success depends on the network’s NAT type and cannot be assured. Client and server authentication support tokens and OIDC, with token authentication as the default; encryption is among the project’s listed capabilities. Proxy groups can balance load, and TCP or HTTP health checks can remove failed services from frps. Monitoring can run in memory or through Prometheus, which requires the Dashboard to be enabled. frps has a browser Dashboard for status and proxy statistics, while frpc includes an Admin UI for proxy status and configuration. Configuration supports TOML, YAML, and JSON; INI is still supported but no longer recommended. Written in Go, frp provides platform-specific binaries for cross-platform deployment without additional dependencies. The project is under development and says version 2 will not be compatible with version 1.