piko vs pgrok
Self-hosted reverse tunnels compared
piko and pgrok are Go-based, self-hosted services that route external traffic to services reached through tunnels. piko focuses on clustered routing to upstreams that establish outbound connections, while pgrok uses SSH port forwarding to share developers’ local services with stable subdomains and OIDC authentication.
piko: Route Traffic to Services Behind Outbound Tunnels
Piko is a Go reverse proxy for securely exposing services that cannot accept public inbound connections. It suits teams that need a self-hosted tunnel with clustering and Kubernetes-friendly deployment for production traffic.
pgrok: Share Local Services Through SSH Tunnels
pgrok is a self-hosted reverse-tunnel service for small teams that need to expose local development services through stable subdomains. It uses SSH port forwarding and OIDC sign-in, with support for HTTP and raw TCP traffic.
| piko | pgrok | |
|---|---|---|
| Language | Go | Go |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Stars | 2.2k | 3.6k |
| Forks | 89 | 132 |
| Last analyzed | Oct 3, 2026 | Oct 3, 2026 |
Key differences
- piko is designed for services in private networks, customer environments, and user devices; pgrok focuses on sharing local development services with small teams.
- piko agents or its Go SDK connect upstreams to the server; pgrok uses SSH remote port forwarding through its client or a standard SSH client.
- piko supports clustered server nodes and describes Kubernetes-friendly deployment; pgrok offers binary, Docker, and Docker Compose deployment options.
- piko includes a Prometheus endpoint, access logging, and a status API; pgrok provides OIDC sign-in and stable user subdomains.
- piko is described for production traffic when operated as a cluster; pgrok describes itself as bare-bones and warns against production use where availability is required.
- Both are written in Go and use the MIT license. pgrok has 3.6k stars and 132 forks, compared with piko at 2.2k stars and 89 forks.
Choose piko if you…
- need to route traffic to services that cannot accept public inbound connections.
- want clustered routing with Kubernetes-friendly deployment guidance.
- need HTTP(S) or TCP forwarding with operational endpoints such as Prometheus metrics and a status API.
Choose pgrok if you…
- want a small-team workflow for sharing developers’ local services through SSH tunnels.
- need stable subdomains and OIDC authentication for shared development tunnels.
- want to route selected HTTP paths to alternate local services or expose raw TCP through a server-side port.
Compare the numbers side by side, or add more projects
This comparison is generated with AI from the OSRepos analyses of both projects. Always check each project's repository and documentation before choosing.