drip
Drip is a self-hosted tunneling solution that lets you expose local services to the internet without relying on third-party tunnel providers. Written in Go with BSD 3-Clause licensing, it offers unlimited bandwidth and tunnels, bandwidth limiting via QoS, and bearer token authentication.
Key facts
Objective fields from the source. Values we can't verify are shown as “Unknown” rather than guessed.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Repository | Gouryella/drip |
| Owner | Gouryella |
| Primary language | Go |
| License | BSD-3-Clause — OSI-approved |
| Stars | 669 |
| Forks | 41 |
| Open issues | 0 |
| Latest release | v0.7.10 (2026-07-01) |
| Last updated | 2026-07-01 |
| Source | https://github.com/Gouryella/drip |
What drip is
Go-based tunneling daemon supporting HTTP, HTTP/2, HTTPS, TCP, and WebSocket protocols with TLS 1.3 encryption. Features per-tunnel bandwidth control using token bucket algorithm, bearer token authentication, and independent transport protocol configuration for service and tunnel domains.
Get the drip source
Clone the repository and explore it locally.
git clone https://github.com/Gouryella/drip.gitcd drip# follow the project's README for install & configurationNeed it deployed, integrated, or customized instead? DEV.co ships production installs.
Best use cases
Implementation considerations
- Requires a publicly accessible server endpoint with stable DNS and TLS certificate (likely Let's Encrypt). Plan certificate renewal automation.
- Bearer token authentication is supported; configure strong token generation, rotation, and storage policies for multi-tenant or production use.
- Bandwidth limiting applies per-tunnel with a server-enforced floor; test QoS behavior under sustained high-throughput scenarios before production.
- No third-party dependency on tunnel provider vendor, but operational responsibility shifts entirely to your infrastructure team.
- Go binary deployment is straightforward, but ensure monitoring and log aggregation are in place for tunnel diagnostics.
When to avoid it — and what to weigh
- No Server Infrastructure Available — Drip requires you to operate and maintain a server endpoint. If you lack infrastructure or prefer fully managed solutions, Ngrok or Cloudflare Tunnel may be more suitable.
- Enterprise Compliance & Audit Requirements — Drip is early-stage (v0.7.10, created Dec 2025). Orgs requiring formal security audits, SLAs, compliance certifications, or vendor support should avoid until maturity and track record improve.
- Minimal DevOps/Ops Capability — Self-hosted tunnels require server provisioning, TLS certificate management, monitoring, and troubleshooting. Teams without DevOps resources will face operational overhead.
- Complex Multi-Protocol Legacy Workloads — While Drip supports TCP, HTTP, and WebSocket, integration with exotic or proprietary protocols or load-balancing across many heterogeneous services is not clearly documented.
License & commercial use
BSD 3-Clause License is a permissive OSI-approved license permitting commercial use, modification, and distribution with attribution and liability disclaimer.
BSD 3-Clause permits commercial use without restriction or license fee. However, no warranty or SLA is provided; use in production requires your own support and maintenance commitment. Review LICENSE file to confirm no additional restrictions apply to your jurisdiction or use case.
DEV.co evaluation signals
Editorial assessment — not user reviews. Directional, with an explicit confidence level.
| Signal | Assessment |
|---|---|
| Maintenance | Active |
| Documentation | Adequate |
| License clarity | Clear |
| Deployment complexity | Moderate |
| DEV.co fit | Good |
| Assessment confidence | High |
Drip enforces TLS 1.3 for transport encryption and supports bearer token authentication for tunnel access control. No third-party servers means traffic isolation is improved, but you assume responsibility for server hardening, key management, certificate rotation, and intrusion detection. Early-stage project: no public security audit or penetration test results available. Do not assume production-grade security posture without internal review.
Alternatives to consider
Ngrok
Fully managed SaaS with zero infrastructure overhead, strong free tier, but third-party data flows and paid-only custom domains/bandwidth limiting.
Cloudflare Tunnel
Zero Trust tunnel model with enterprise features and managed infrastructure, but ties you to Cloudflare ecosystem and their security/privacy posture.
Frp (Fast Reverse Proxy)
Mature self-hosted reverse proxy with broader protocol support and larger community, but steeper learning curve and less intuitive CLI for simple use cases.
Build on drip with DEV.co software developers
Drip offers a lightweight, zero-cost alternative to managed tunnel providers. Evaluate whether your infrastructure and compliance requirements align with early-stage, self-operated infrastructure. Contact us for architecture review and deployment planning.
Talk to DEV.coRelated on DEV.co
Explore the category and the services that help you build with it.
drip FAQ
Do I need to pay for Drip?
What if my server goes down?
Can I use Drip with a custom domain?
Is Drip suitable for production?
Software developers & web developers for hire
Adopting drip is usually one piece of a larger software development effort. As a software development agency, DEV.co provides software development services and web development expertise — pairing senior software developers and web developers with your team to design, build, and operate open-source devops software in production.
Ready to Deploy Self-Hosted Tunneling?
Drip offers a lightweight, zero-cost alternative to managed tunnel providers. Evaluate whether your infrastructure and compliance requirements align with early-stage, self-operated infrastructure. Contact us for architecture review and deployment planning.