Pangolin Self-Hosted Reverse Proxy Service
| Basic Information | |
|---|---|
| Release Year | |
| Product Type | |
| In Production | Yes |
| Official Website | https://pangolin.net/ |
Consumer-impact summary
edit
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)
edit| Release | Feature Area | Community Edition (Self-Hosted) | Enterprise / Cloud Edition | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.19.0 | Enterprise-gated remote access |
|
|
https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin/releases/tag/1.19.0 |
| 1.18.0 | Infrastructure platform features |
|
|
https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin/releases/tag/1.18.0 |
| 1.17.0 | RBAC and access control scaling |
|
|
https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin/releases/tag/1.17.0 |
| 1.13.0 | Identity and network model expansion |
|
|
https://github.com/fosrl/pangolin/releases/tag/1.13.0 |
Timeline of feature divergence
edit1.19.0 – Enterprise-gated remote access
editBrowser-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
editIntroduced 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
editExpanded 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
editIntroduced 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
editThe 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
edit- Open-core software model
- Self-hosted infrastructure platforms
- WireGuard
- Cloudflare Tunnels
- Twingate
- ↑ ref goes here