boringproxy development is sponsored by TakingNames.io. boringproxy offers full integration with TakingNames.io, providing the simplest way to get up and running with your own domain. More information here, and a demo video of boringproxy working with TakingNames.io here.

What is boringproxy?

boringproxy is a combination of a reverse proxy and a tunnel manager.

What that means is if you have a self-hosted web service (Nextcloud, Emby, Jellyfin, etherpad, personal website, etc.) running on a private network (such as behind a NAT at home), boringproxy aims to provide the easiest way to securely (i.e. HTTPS and optional password-protection) expose that server to the internet, so you can access it from anywhere.

To see how boringproxy compares to other similar software, see the comparison here.

The main features are:

• 100% free and open source under the MIT license.
• Designed from the ground up with self-hosters in mind.
• No more port forwarding, NAT traversal, firewall rules, HTTPS certificate management, etc etc. Let boringproxy handle it all for you.
• No config files. Seriously, none. It has nice defaults and the few knobs are easily adjusted with simple CLI parameters.
• Lightning fast web GUI for managing tunnels from one central place. It even works great on mobile browsers.
• Fully configurable through a HTTP API.
• The client software works on Linux, Windows, Mac, and ARM (i.e. Raspberry Pi and Android).
• Ships as single executable which contains both the server and client.
• SSH under the hood. You can use a standard SSH client if you prefer.
• End-to-end encryption (since version 0.4.0). Choose whether to terminate TLS at the server, client, or your application. All handled seamlessly with Let's Encrypt integration.

Demo Video

YouTube mirror Download WebM/VP9 Download MP4/h264

Demo Instance

The boringproxy demo instance is currently down.

Installation

Learn more about the installation in the documentation.

boringproxy uses the DNS to identify the server and the tunnel endpoints. An often used pattern is to provide a domain record for the administrative web interface, and a wildcard subdomain for the tunneled services.

• bpdemo.brng.pro - the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the host where boringproxy will be running.
• *.bpdemo.brng.pro - a wildcard subdomain for effortless domain mapping of clients

The clients will then be able to assign domains from the wildcard subdomain without having to reconfigure DNS beforehand.

Usage

Learn more about the usage in the documentation.

Getting Help

If you run into problems running boringproxy, the best place to ask for help is over at the IndieBits community, where we have a dedicated section for boringproxy support. If you think you've found a bug, or want to discuss development, please open an issue on GitHub.

What's with the name?

The name has two meanings; one pun and one philosophy. The pun is "bore" as in bore a hole/tunnel, highlighting the fact that boringproxy is a reverse proxy that automatically manages making tunnels.

The philosophy is that boring (as in boredom) software is often the most useful software. If you have to interact with boringproxy to get something done, I hope it ends up being the least interesting part of your day. I want it to be a tool that does its job well and gets out of the way.

This also has implications when it comes to adding features. I want boringproxy to remain simple and focused. When contemplating adding any feature, the first question I ask myself is: is it boring enough?