Pangolin

What Pangolin does

Pangolin (legally Fossorial Inc.) is an open-source zero-trust remote access platform that provides unified, identity-based access to infrastructure across on-premises, cloud, and edge environments. The platform is built on the WireGuard VPN protocol and supports access to SSH, web applications, RDP, databases, and APIs through either peer-to-peer tunnels or clientless browser-based sessions. Pangolin verifies identity and context at every access request, positioning itself as an alternative to traditional VPNs and Cloudflare Tunnels, and serves self-hosting enthusiasts, DevOps/SRE teams, and enterprise organizations that need secure remote access without exposing ports or relying on legacy VPN complexity. Native clients are available across macOS, iOS, Windows, Linux, and Android, and the project has accumulated 21.4k GitHub stars and over 1,000,000 deployments worldwide.

The company operates a dual-licensing business model. The Pangolin Community Edition is free and distributed under the AGPL-3.0 license for non-commercial users and businesses earning less than $100,000 in annual revenue, serving as the primary acquisition channel through open-source distribution on GitHub and self-serve downloads. The Pangolin Enterprise Edition, offered under the Fossorial Commercial License, adds commercial features, scalability options, and professional support for organizations above the $100K revenue threshold. Pangolin is ISO 27001 certified and operates a public Trust Center, supporting enterprise procurement requirements.

Pangolin employs 1-10 people and is based in San Francisco. The company was co-founded by Milo Schwartz (CEO) and Owen Schwartz (CTO) and has raised approximately $5.2 million across a 2025 Y Combinator round ($500K) and a larger October 2025 seed round ($4.7M) led by Chemistry with participation from 468 Capital, Blast. Club, Pioneer Fund, Transpose Platform Management, and Y Combinator. Distribution is product-led and community-led, relying on GitHub visibility, developer documentation, the FLOSS Weekly podcast feature, and direct self-serve downloads rather than a traditional field sales motion.

Name

Pangolin

Legal name

Fossorial Inc.

Website

https://digpangolin.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2025

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Pangolin (Fossorial Inc.) is an open-source zero-trust remote access platform built on WireGuard that provides unified, identity-based access to SSH, web apps, databases, and APIs for self-hosting enthusiasts, DevOps/SRE teams, and enterprises, monetizing via a dual-licensing model with a free Community Edition and a paid Enterprise Edition.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Zero Trust Network Access Software

akta.pro primary industry

Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP) / Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) (HDADABAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Remote Access & Privileged Access for OT (ZTA/PAM for Vendors) (HDADAJAG), Access Management & Policy Enforcement (Zero Trust) (BPAMAEAH), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (HDADAAAC), Network Security Services (Firewall/VPN/ZTNA/SASE Integration) (BPAEAEAG)

Keywords

• Zero trust security
• Remote access platform
• Network access control
• VPN alternative
• Infrastructure access management

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Community Edition (Free): Free open-source version under AGPL-3.0 license for non-commercial users and businesses earning under $100,000 in annual revenue. Serves as the primary acquisition channel for the freemium model.
2. Enterprise Edition (Paid): Commercial version under Fossorial Commercial License adding enterprise features, scalability options, and professional support. Targets businesses earning over $100,000 annually. Represents the primary revenue generation stream.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Pangolin provides an open-source zero trust remote access platform built on the WireGuard protocol that delivers unified, identity-based access to infrastructure resources including SSH, web apps, RDP, databases, and APIs. Access is delivered via peer-to-peer tunnels or clientless browser access across on-prem, cloud, and edge environments, eliminating traditional VPN friction. The company sells the product under a dual-licensing model: a free Community Edition under AGPL-3.0 and a commercial Enterprise Edition under the Fossorial Commercial License.

Product overview

Pangolin is an open-source, zero trust remote access platform built on WireGuard. The company operates a dual-licensing model consisting of the Community Edition (free, open-source under AGPL-3.0 for non-commercial and small revenue businesses) and the Enterprise Edition (commercial license with additional features, scalability, and professional support). The platform provides unified, identity-based remote access to infrastructure across on-prem, cloud, and edge environments with peer-to-peer tunnels and clientless browser access.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Pangolin Community Edition: Free open-source version under AGPL-3.0 license, available for non-commercial users and businesses earning under $100,000 in annual revenue.
• Pangolin Enterprise Edition

Products and services

• Pangolin Community Edition Free, open-source zero trust remote access platform based on WireGuard, available under AGPL-3.0 license for non-commercial users and businesses earning under $100,000 in annual revenue. Provides unified identity-based access to SSH, web apps, RDP, databases, and APIs via peer-to-peer tunnels or clientless browser access across on-prem, cloud, and edge environments.
• Pangolin Enterprise Edition Commercial version of Pangolin offered under the Fossorial Commercial License, adding enterprise features, scalability options, and professional support to the open-source Community Edition. Targets businesses earning over $100,000 in annual revenue that require enterprise-grade zero trust remote access with professional support and commercial licensing.

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• WireGuardcoreTechnology or IntegrationPangolin is built on the WireGuard VPN protocol, an open-source VPN technology known for its speed, simplicity, and security. WireGuard serves as the foundational technology layer enabling Pangolin's zero trust remote access capabilities.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Tailscale: Tailscale is a WireGuard-based zero-trust mesh VPN serving developers and enterprises. It is the most direct competitor to Pangolin, with overlapping target users (DevOps/SRE), technology (WireGuard), and pricing model (free personal/OSS plus paid business plans).
• Netbird: Netbird is an open-source WireGuard-based zero-trust network access platform with self-hosted and managed offerings. It directly competes with Pangolin on technology stack (WireGuard), open-source model, and target persona (DevOps/SRE).
• ZeroTier: ZeroTier provides peer-to-peer SDN/mesh networking for infrastructure access. It overlaps Pangolin's decentralized network access, multi-platform client support, and developer-led adoption model.
• Twingate: Twingate is a zero-trust network access vendor targeting enterprises replacing legacy VPNs. It is comparable to Pangolin on product category (ZTNA), target market (DevOps and enterprise IT), and commercial motion (free tier plus paid enterprise).

Broad incumbents

• Cloudflare Tunnels / Cloudflare Access: Cloudflare offers free Tunnels and a paid Zero Trust Access product that overlaps Pangolin's tunneling and identity-based access capabilities. As a broad incumbent with a global edge network and free tier, it is the most powerful pricing competitor in the same product category.
• Zscaler Private Access: Zscaler is a leading SASE/ZTNA platform sold to large enterprises. It is comparable to Pangolin at the ZTNA product layer (identity-based application access without VPNs), though it operates as a broad incumbent rather than a developer-led OSS company.
• Cloudflare Zero Trust: Cloudflare's broader Zero Trust platform (Access, Gateway, CASB, DLP) competes at the enterprise ZTNA layer with Pangolin's identity-based application access, while offering a much larger security portfolio.
• Okta: Okta is a leading identity and access management platform whose SSO and adaptive MFA underpin enterprise zero-trust strategies. It is adjacent to Pangolin, which relies on identity providers for its access decisions, and could move further into network access over time.
• Cisco Duo: Cisco Duo is a broad-incumbent MFA and zero-trust access product that competes in the same identity-aware application access category as Pangolin, particularly for enterprise customers standardizing on Cisco security stacks.
• Google BeyondCorp Enterprise: BeyondCorp Enterprise is Google's cloud-delivered zero-trust access product. It is comparable to Pangolin at the ZTNA product layer (identity- and context-aware application access without VPN) but is delivered as part of Google's broader enterprise security portfolio.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/fosrl/pangolin
• YouTubepangolin.net/youtube
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/digpangolin

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors7 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Pangolin