COMPARISON.md

BGP Implementation Comparison

A feature comparison of open-source BGP daemon implementations.

Last updated: 2026-03-14

Overview

	rustbgpd	FRR (bgpd)	BIRD	GoBGP	OpenBGPd
Language	Rust	C	C	Go	C
License	MIT	GPL-2.0	GPL-2.0+	Apache-2.0	ISC
Primary interface	gRPC	CLI (vtysh)	CLI (birdc)	gRPC	CLI (bgpctl)
First release	2026	2017	1998	2014	2004
Multithreaded	Yes (tokio)	No	Yes (BIRD 3)	Yes (goroutines)	Yes (3-process)

Address Families

AFI/SAFI	rustbgpd	FRR	BIRD	GoBGP	OpenBGPd
IPv4 Unicast	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
IPv6 Unicast	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
IPv4 Multicast	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
IPv6 Multicast	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
IPv4 Labeled Unicast	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
IPv6 Labeled Unicast	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
VPNv4 (RFC 4364)	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
VPNv6	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
L2VPN EVPN (RFC 7432)	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
L2VPN VPLS	No	No	No	Yes	No
IPv4 FlowSpec (RFC 8955)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
IPv6 FlowSpec	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
VPN FlowSpec	No	No	No	Yes	No
BGP-LS (RFC 7752)	No	No	No	Yes	No
SR Policy	No	No	No	Yes	No

Core Protocol

Feature	rustbgpd	FRR	BIRD	GoBGP	OpenBGPd
RFC 4271 FSM	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
4-byte ASN (RFC 6793)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Capability negotiation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Route Refresh (RFC 2918)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Enhanced Route Refresh (RFC 7313)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Graceful Restart (RFC 4724)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Long-Lived GR (RFC 9494)	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	No
Notification GR (RFC 8538)	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Add-Path (RFC 7911)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Extended Messages (RFC 8654)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Extended Nexthop (RFC 8950)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Route Reflector (RFC 4456)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Confederation (RFC 5065)	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Admin Shutdown (RFC 8203)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BGP Roles (RFC 9234)	No	No	Yes	No	Yes

Policy Engine

Feature	rustbgpd	FRR	BIRD	GoBGP	OpenBGPd
Prefix matching (ge/le)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
AS-path regex	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Standard communities	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Extended communities	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Large communities (RFC 8092)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Community add/remove/replace	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
MED manipulation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
LOCAL_PREF set	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
AS-path prepend	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Next-hop set/self	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
RPKI validation match	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Neighbor/peer matching	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Named policy definitions	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Policy chaining	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Custom filter language	No	No	Yes	No	Yes

Security

Feature	rustbgpd	FRR	BIRD	GoBGP	OpenBGPd
TCP MD5 (RFC 2385)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TCP-AO (RFC 5925)	No	No	No	No	No
GTSM / TTL Security	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
RPKI/RTR (RFC 6810/8210)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ASPA verification	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Private AS removal	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Privilege separation	No	No	No	No	Yes
Memory-safe language	Yes	No	No	Yes	No

Monitoring & Observability

Feature	rustbgpd	FRR	BIRD	GoBGP	OpenBGPd
Prometheus metrics	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Structured logging (JSON)	Yes	No	No	No	No
BMP (RFC 7854)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
MRT dump (RFC 6396)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Streaming route events	Yes	No	No	Yes	No

API & Programmability

Feature	rustbgpd	FRR	BIRD	GoBGP	OpenBGPd
gRPC API	Yes	Partial	No	Yes	No
REST API	Partial	Partial	No	No	No
YANG model	No	Partial	No	No	No
CLI tool	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
CLI JSON output	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Runtime route injection	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Config persistence (API mutations)	Yes	No	No	No	No
Hot reconfiguration (no restart)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Embeddable library	No	No	No	Yes	No

Operations

Feature	rustbgpd	FRR	BIRD	GoBGP	OpenBGPd
Live TUI dashboard	Yes	No	No	No	No
Config error diagnostics	Yes	No	No	No	No
Docker image	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Fuzz testing	Yes	No	No	No	No
Interop test suite	Yes	No	No	No	No
FIB/kernel integration	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Route server mode	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Dynamic neighbors	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Looking glass	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
BFD integration	No	Yes	Yes	No	No

Best-Path Selection

Step	rustbgpd	FRR	BIRD	GoBGP	OpenBGPd
LOCAL_PREF	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
AS-path length	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ORIGIN	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
MED	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
eBGP over iBGP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
CLUSTER_LIST length	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ORIGINATOR_ID	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Stale route demotion (GR)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
RPKI preference	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
AIGP	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Multipath/ECMP	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Memory (200k prefixes, bgperf2)

Implementation	Memory
BIRD	~7 MB
FRR	~30 MB
rustbgpd	~257 MB
GoBGP	~578 MB

OpenBGPd was not tested in this benchmark.

Positioning

rustbgpd is an API-first BGP daemon targeting IX route server and SDN controller use cases. It trades address family breadth for modern operational tooling (gRPC, Prometheus, structured logging, TUI, config diagnostics) and memory safety guarantees.

FRR is the most feature-complete open-source routing suite, covering BGP plus OSPF, IS-IS, PIM, and more. Best choice when you need a full routing stack with broad AFI/SAFI coverage and kernel FIB integration.

BIRD dominates IXP route server deployments. Best-in-class memory efficiency and a powerful filter language. BIRD 3 adds multithreading for 5000+ peer scale. Lacks a programmatic API — management is CLI/config-file only.

GoBGP pioneered the API-first model with gRPC as its primary interface. Broadest AFI/SAFI coverage. Higher memory and CPU usage than C implementations at scale. Best as an SDN controller or route injector rather than a high-performance router.

OpenBGPd is security-focused with privilege separation and OpenBSD heritage. Deployed at major IXPs (LINX, Netnod). Lean, reliable, and standards-compliant with strong RFC coverage including BGP Roles and Extended Messages. No programmatic API beyond the CLI socket.