---
title: "Introduction to Pangolin"
---

Pangolin is an open-source and identity-aware tunneled reverse proxy server. Pangolin's distributed architecture with nodes provide highly available ingress to ensure applications always remain accessible.

<Frame caption="Screenshot of resources page from the Pangolin Dashboard.">
  <img src="/images/fossorial-dashboard.png" alt="Pangolin Dashboard"/>
</Frame>

Pangolin establishes secure connections from edge networks to nodes, bypassing the need for public inbound ports and complex firewall configurations. Pangolin is incredibly useful for exposing local services, IoT devices, or internal applications to the internet without direct exposure, enhancing security by reducing attack surface and simplifying network management. Additionally, Pangolin acts as an identity-aware proxy by authenticating every request against admin-defined access controls and rules.

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Pangolin Cloud" icon="cloud" href="https://app.pangolin.net/auth/signup">
    Use Cloud for a highly available and access-controlled ingress service with nodes all over the world. Optionally self-host a node to keep your traffic private.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Self-host Pangolin" icon="server" href="self-host/quick-install">
    Self-host a fully isolated Pangolin server. Install the Community Edition or Enterprise Edition easily using the quick installer.
  </Card>
</Columns>

## What is a fossorial animal?

The Pangolin system is made up of many components, all with unique animal names. These animals are called fossorial animals.

A fossorial animal is one adapted to digging which lives primarily but not solely, underground. Some examples are badgers, naked mole-rats, clams, meerkats, newts, olms, and yes - of course - pangolins. 
