Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Headscale VS ProtonVPN

Compare Headscale VS ProtonVPN and see what are their differences

Headscale logo Headscale

An open source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale control server

ProtonVPN logo ProtonVPN

ProtonVPN is a security focused FREE VPN service, developed by CERN and MIT scientists. Use the web anonymously, unblock websites & encrypt your connection.
  • Headscale Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-20
  • ProtonVPN Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-17

Headscale videos

Testing out headscale locally for homelab setup

More videos:

  • Review - Tutorial: Using Tailscale Overlay Network VPN with the Self Hosted Headscale Controller

ProtonVPN videos

ProtonVPN Review 2019 - HONEST REVIEW!

More videos:

  • Review - ProtonVPN Review 2020 - WATCH BEFORE YOU BUY
  • Review - ProtonVPN Review 2020 - here is the TRUTH

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Headscale and ProtonVPN)
VPN
7 7%
93% 93
Cloud VPN
7 7%
93% 93
Security & Privacy
8 8%
92% 92
Security
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Headscale and ProtonVPN

Headscale Reviews

We have no reviews of Headscale yet.
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ProtonVPN Reviews

Best 5 Psiphon Alternatives in 2023
The risks associated with picking a free VPN usually outweigh the pros, but in the case of ProtonVPN that’s a trusted service, you might just get away without paying a single dime for spoofing your location. There are obvious downsides with going for a completely free service – only 3 server locations and no access to geo-restricted Netflix content. However, the moment you...
The Best NordVPN Alternatives in 2022
What’s unique about ProtonVPN is its VPN Accelerator solution combined with a 10 Gbps server network to increase VPN speeds by over 400 percent. It also uses multiple OpenVPN processes for every server and re-engineered OpenVPN for optimum distribution of load.
Source: www.alphr.com
Best NordVPN Alternatives
ProtonVPN hails from a long line of privacy-centric products like ProtonMail. Moreover, CERN scientists are responsible for the company behind this VPN. Thus, it has a reputation to uphold, that of a privacy-centric VPN. Furthermore, the providers also offer a free ProtonVPN version by subsidizing the premium user base. As expected, the company hails from Switzerland and...
Source: vpnwired.com
10 Best NordVPN Alternatives – Safe & Fast VPNs in 2022
ProtonVPN is one of the reliable alternatives of NordVPN when it comes to well-optimized servers. The VPN service has both free and premium plans, but users can’t select servers in the free plan. In total, ProtonVPN has 526 servers in 42 countries, and it’s always known for its ping time and faster speed.
Source: techviral.net
The 10 Best Open Source VPN Apps
If you frequently watch YouTube, you must have at least heard of this VPN application. Not only is ProtonVPN available on all Windows, macOS, and Linux-based systems, but you’ll also find its mobile apps on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store. A little background on this app: ProtonVPN has been developed by a team of scientists from MIT and CERN, so you know it’s...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, ProtonVPN should be more popular than Headscale. It has been mentiond 310 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Headscale mentions (42)

  • List of ngrok/Cloudflare Tunnel alternatives and other tunneling software and services. Focus on self-hosting.
    Headscale - Open source implementation of Tailscale control server. Can be used with Tailscale's official open source client. Written in Go. - Source: dev.to / 16 days ago
  • Securely Accessing Private AWS Resources from GitHub Actions with TailScale
    One more thing, you can host Tailscale Control Server yourself if you want, which is a plus. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • A word of caution about Tailscale
    Https://github.com/juanfont/headscale not to mention but Tailscale has a very good culture, I’m sure they would give notice if they pull the rug. There are also many alternatives such as Zerotier and more are showing up every day and open source options. Source: 5 months ago
  • Connecting several hundreds IoT (raspberry pi's) devices with a VPN
    How about self-hosted Tailscale, known as Headscale. Source: 5 months ago
  • Mullvad on Tailscale: Privately browse the web
    You can run your own "head scale" control server and use their clients with it: https://github.com/juanfont/headscale Requires a lot more setup, but it is an option. I've been self-hosting headscale for some time and it is quite stable. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
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ProtonVPN mentions (310)

  • I can’t make an account or login into One
    Try the free version of Proton VPN specifically. Source: 5 months ago
  • Pirating on Mac extremely slow
    Hey there, after doing some research it seems like the conclusion is your vpn. Nord VPN has a lack of port forwarding, while other vpns have port forwarding (proton, mullvad). That is most likely interrupting your speed. also, apparently nord does keep some sort of logs if your interested in that. I would recommend cancelling nord and getting something else like proton or mullvad (i would recommend proton more)... Source: 5 months ago
  • ⟳ 4 apps added, 121 updated at f-droid.org
    ProtonVPN - Secure and Free VPN (version 4.7.41.0): Free Swiss VPN with advanced security and privacy features. Source: 8 months ago
  • The 10 tools I install on every new Mac I get
    Other essentials are a VPN (I use Mullvad and ProtonVPN), but that's about it. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Why people use VPN on torrent and which torrent software should i use ?
    If you end up finding out that you need a VPN, then bind it to qbittorent with this guide. Recommended VPNs are ProtonVPN and Mullvad. Source: 9 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Headscale and ProtonVPN, you can also consider the following products

TailScale - Private networks made easy Connect all your devices using WireGuard, without the hassle. Tailscale makes it as easy as installing an app and signing in.

Windscribe - Windscribe is a desktop application and browser extension that work together to block ads and trackers, restore access to blocked content and help you safeguard your privacy online.

NetBird - Connect your devices into a single secure private WireGuard®-based mesh network with SSO/MFA and manage access with just a few clicks.

OpenVPN - OpenVPN - The Open Source VPN

Netmaker - Netmaker automates mesh VPN's and software-defined networks using WireGuard.

NordVPN - NordVPN offers VPN technology that encrypts data twice.