Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

NetBird VS Headscale

Compare NetBird VS Headscale and see what are their differences

NetBird logo NetBird

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

Headscale logo Headscale

An open source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale control server
  • NetBird Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-20
  • Headscale Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-20

NetBird videos

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Headscale videos

Testing out headscale locally for homelab setup

More videos:

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to NetBird and Headscale)
VPN
40 40%
60% 60
Cloud VPN
39 39%
61% 61
Security & Privacy
38 38%
62% 62
Localhost Tools
46 46%
54% 54

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Headscale should be more popular than NetBird. It has been mentiond 42 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.

NetBird mentions (8)

  • AWS Lambda Serverless Security. Mistakes, Oversights, and Potential Vulnerabilities
    The best way to securely connect your functions to your other resources is with an encrypted mesh network like NetBird. NetBird lets you link your infrastructure together using a zero-config private WireGuard network that works across cloud, serverless, and on-premise infrastructure. - Source: dev.to / 18 days ago
  • Using NetBird for Kubernetes Access
    NetBird simplifies Kubernetes access with its zero-configuration approach, leveraging WireGuard's simplicity and strength. It seamlessly integrates with various tools, offering transparency and high reliability as an open source solution. - Source: dev.to / 21 days ago
  • NetMaker: Connect Everything with a WireGuard VPN
    I'd add to that list Netbird, which is the one I ended up using after trying all of the above. https://netbird.io/. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Tailscale vs. Narrowlink
    Another option in this space is https://netbird.io/ Unfortunately they still don't have an iOS client (which e.g. Tailscale and ZeroTier has). - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Is there a WebUI for multi-tenant OpenVPN setup?
    Why OpenVPN? If the type is not important then use netbird.io it uses Wireguard and can have subnets. Source: 12 months ago
View more

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 / 21 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: 6 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 / 9 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing NetBird and Headscale, 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.

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

ZeroTier - Extremely simple P2P Encrypted VPN

zrok - Next-generation sharing platform built on top of OpenZiti

OpenVPN - OpenVPN - The Open Source VPN

ngrok - ngrok enables secure introspectable tunnels to localhost webhook development tool and debugging tool.