Pangolin Self-Hosted Reverse Proxy Service

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Pangolin Self-Hosted Reverse Proxy Service

Basic Information
Release Year
Product Type
In Production	Yes
Official Website	https://pangolin.net/

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Consumer impact summary

Overview of concerns that arise from the conduct towards users of the product (if applicable):

• User freedom
• User privacy
• Business model
• Market control

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Pangolin is a self-hosted open-source reverse proxy and identity-aware tunneling platform. While the core project remains GPL-licensed and self-hostable, recent releases introduce a consistent pattern where major new features are delivered in Enterprise or Cloud tiers rather than the Community Edition. This has resulted in a widening gap between the self-hosted version and paid deployments, particularly in identity management, infrastructure tooling, and remote access capabilities.

Feature gating by release (CE vs Enterprise divergence)

Release	Feature Area	Community Edition (Self-Hosted)	Enterprise / Cloud Edition	Source
1.19.0	Enterprise-gated remote access	Standard client-based access only (Requires local client software)	Browser-based SSH Browser-based RDP Browser-based VNC	https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin/releases/tag/1.19.0
1.18.0	Infrastructure platform features	Standard single-site routing Exact-match resources only Basic standard logging	Multi-site routing Wildcard resources System monitoring Audit logging	https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin/releases/tag/1.18.0
1.17.0	RBAC and access control scaling	Single role per user Basic identity provider mapping	Multiple roles per user (Multi-role RBAC) Advanced identity provider mapping Tier-based access separation	https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin/releases/tag/1.17.0
1.13.0	Identity and network model expansion	Standard tunneling only No private resources No device-based access policies	Private resources integration Device-based access model	https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin/releases/tag/1.13.0

Timeline of feature divergence

1.19.0 – Enterprise-gated remote access

Browser-based SSH, RDP, and VNC were introduced and explicitly documented as Cloud/Enterprise-only features.

Features Excluded from GPL (Community Edition):

• Browser-based SSH
• Browser-based RDP
• Browser-based VNC

Source: https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin/releases/tag/1.19.0 Docs: https://docs.pangolin.net/manage/ssh

1.18.0 – Infrastructure platform features

Introduced multi-site routing, wildcard resources, monitoring, and audit logging, moving the project toward infrastructure orchestration functionality.

Features Excluded from GPL (Community Edition):

• Multi-site routing
• Wildcard resources
• Monitoring tooling
• Audit logging

Source: https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin/releases/tag/1.18.0

1.17.0 – RBAC and access control scaling

Expanded RBAC to support multiple roles per user and improved identity provider mapping. This release establishes the foundation for tier-based access separation.

Features Excluded from GPL (Community Edition):

• Support for multiple roles per user
• Advanced identity provider mapping

Source: https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin/releases/tag/1.17.0

1.13.0 – Identity and network model expansion

Introduced private resources and a device-based access model, expanding Pangolin beyond simple tunneling into structured identity-based networking.

Features Excluded from GPL (Community Edition):

• Private resources
• Device-based access model

Source: https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin/releases/tag/1.13.0

Consumer impact

The Community Edition continues to provide core tunneling functionality, but newer releases increasingly restrict major platform features to Enterprise or Cloud tiers. The result is a structured divergence between:

• Community Edition: base self-hosted tunneling system
• Enterprise/Cloud: full feature platform with advanced identity, infrastructure, and remote access tooling

See also

• Open-core software model
• Self-hosted infrastructure platforms
• WireGuard
• Cloudflare Tunnels
• Twingate