head to head · open source
Tailscale vs Netbird
Tailscale has 38,534 GitHub stars, 3,411 forks, 4,569 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Netbird has 30,565 stars, 1,819 forks, 1,512 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tailscale leads on adoption by 26% (38,534 vs 30,565 stars). Tailscale is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause; Netbird is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. Tailscale has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Netbird 6%. Tailscale was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (vpn, wireguard), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Tailscale | Netbird | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 31K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Tailscale if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Netbird if
- You want the Netbird feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Netbird fits your workflow better
About Tailscale
Tailscale Private WireGuard® networks made easy Overview This repository contains the majority of Tailscale's open source code. Notably, it includes the tailscaled daemon and the tailscale CLI tool. The tailscaled daemon runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, and to varying degrees on FreeBSD and OpenBSD. The Tailscale iOS and Android apps use this repo's code, but this repo doesn't contain the mobile GUI code. Other Tailscale repos of note: the Android app is at the Synology package is at the QNAP package is at the Chocolatey packaging is at For background on which parts of Tailscale are open source and why, see Using…
read the full Tailscale overview →
About Netbird
Start using NetBird at netbird.io See Documentation Join our Slack channel or our Community forum 🚀 We are hiring! Join us at 🤖 NetBird Agent Network (Beta) Identity aware access control for AI agents — keyless access to LLM APIs and private resources over the encrypted NetBird tunnel. See agent network/ or read the docs at netbird.ai . NetBird combines a configuration free peer to peer private network and a centralized access control system in a single platform, making it easy to create secure private networks for your organization or home. Connect. NetBird creates a WireGuard based overlay network that…
read the full Netbird overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tailscale or Netbird more popular?
Tailscale has 38,534 GitHub stars and Netbird has 30,565. Tailscale has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tailscale and Netbird free?
Both are open source. Tailscale is licensed under BSD-3-Clause, and Netbird has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Tailscale and Netbird?
Tailscale is written in Go and Netbird in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Tailscale or Netbird?
Choose Tailscale if you want the larger community (38,534 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose Netbird if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.