Pomerium

What is Pomerium?

Pomerium is an identity-aware reverse proxy that adds authentication and access control to self-hosted applications. It functions as a successor to the deprecated oauth_proxy, intercepting requests to backend services and requiring users to complete an OAuth authentication step before accessing them. The tool enables organizations to safely expose internal web applications to the public internet without requiring a VPN. It acts as a gateway between users and backend services, verifying user identity and permissions before allowing traffic through. Pomerium is designed for teams managing self-hosted infrastructure who need granular access control without the complexity of VPN solutions. This includes small businesses, development teams, and organizations running internal tools, dashboards, or documentation sites that need selective public or cross-organization access. Key characteristics include support for multiple identity providers, policy-based access control, and clientless connections—meaning users authenticate through their browser rather than requiring special software installation. The project is open source, making it suitable for organizations seeking transparent, customizable authentication infrastructure. Pomerium appeals to users who want to bridge the gap between complete internal-only access and unrestricted public exposure, offering a middle ground through identity verification and access policies. It provides an alternative to traditional VPN approaches for exposing self-hosted services securely.