# nginx-love vs Pterodactyl

> Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.

| | nginx-love | Pterodactyl |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50/100 | 75/100 ✓ |
| Rank in category | #3 of 3 in Web Application Firewall | #4 of 62 in Game Servers |
| GitHub stars | 312 | 9 438 ✓ |
| Stars, last 30 days | +0 | +183 ✓ |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 1 | 11 ✓ |
| Latest release | v4.01 · 31 Oct 2025 | v1.15.2 · 21 Oct 2026 ✓ |
| Setup | Moderate ✓ | Advanced |
| Official Docker image | No | Yes ✓ |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Other |
| Main language | Typescript | PHP |

## Which one should you pick?

Pterodactyl scores 75/100 against 50/100 for nginx-love, so it is the safer default.

Pterodactyl ships more often: 11 stable releases in the past year, against 1 for nginx-love.

If you want the quickest setup, nginx-love is easier to run; Pterodactyl needs more configuration.

Pterodactyl is growing faster right now (+183 stars in 30 days).

## Details

- [nginx-love](https://selfhost.directory/project/nginx-love) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/nginx-love.md)
- [Pterodactyl](https://selfhost.directory/project/pterodactyl) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/pterodactyl.md)

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Source: https://selfhost.directory/compare/nginx-love-vs-pterodactyl