Headscale vs NetBird
Mesh VPN that makes your devices reachable anywhere.
The pick: Headscale
Headscale keeps the Tailscale clients you already have. NetBird is a whole product of its own.
The facts
| Fact | Headscale | NetBird |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | BSD-3-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Effort | a weekend | a weekend |
| Activity | active | active |
| Repository | github.com/juanfont/headscale | github.com/netbirdio/netbird |
Pick Headscale if
Pick Headscale if every device already runs a Tailscale client and you only want your own control plane.
Pick NetBird if
Pick NetBird if you would rather run one coherent stack than half of someone else's.
What each one costs you
- HeadscaleOne server and the official clients. You run the control plane; when it is down, new connections fail.
- NetBirdIts own clients and its own ideas. Complete, more moving parts.
The full entry for both lives under Instead of Tailscale, judged partly.