I've had pangolin running for a while, doing tunneling to some self hosted resources, and I'm confused by this announcement and update. It seems like they're suggesting to use an Android/iOS client to connect to Pangolin protected resources, which seems like a shitload more work and overhead than just using wireguard to do the same thing. Am i missing something here?
this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2026
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It looks similar to tailscale and netbird, in that it offers NAT traversal, relays, and proper authentication and access control. Whether or not you need that depends on your circumstances (how many users and their technical proficiency, CG-NAT prevalence, whether you need mesh support, etc).
If you're just hosting for yourself and you have public ipv4 and ipv6 there's not much benefit.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| NAS | Network-Attached Storage |
| NAT | Network Address Translation |
| SSD | Solid State Drive mass storage |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network |
[Thread #1018 for this comm, first seen 25th Jan 2026, 01:35] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
When did this become a VPN?
AFAIK it always has been one https://dbtechreviews.com/2025/01/15/exploring-pangolin-the-self-hosted-cloudflare-tunnel-alternative/
It's a WireGuard VPN with a bunch of automation to make using it as a reverse proxy easier
Its interesting that the VPN is exposed now
AFAIK connecting to the VPN was the functionality of that older desktop app. Now they only added mobile apps
The option to connect a client to the VPN has been there in webgui since at least a month
No f-droid? I'm very disappointed
Put this in obtanium as an alternative 🫶
It's great that Obtainium exists but that's not my point. Behind pangolin is a company. Which in a way claims to be "one of us" - distributes open source code, with one of proper licenses, etc. Yet, when they deliver a binary, they only put it on big tech service. They didn't say "f-droid coming", which is normal as putting up f-droid builds sometimes takes time, not even "f-droid will be evaluated". Maybe I've become a hardliner but in my book thats a few "sus points" from me
I use pangolin. I use their cloud offer and I'm preparing to move to self-hosted one. But I say: don't throw away wireguard notes yet, pangolin might enshittify once they get a following
fuck yeah been waiting on this!! yay for grandmother!