head to head · open source
Netbird vs Werbot
Netbird has 30,565 GitHub stars, 1,819 forks, 1,512 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Werbot has 169 stars, 10 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Netbird leads on adoption by 17,986% (30,565 vs 169 stars). Netbird is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence; Werbot is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. Netbird has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Werbot 6%. Netbird was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (golang), 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
| Netbird | Werbot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 169 |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-08-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 10 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Netbird if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Werbot if
- You want the Werbot feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Werbot fits your workflow better
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 →
About Werbot
What is Werbot? Werbot is an open source solution allowing users to securely share access to servers, data bases, web applications, desktops, containers and clouds; providing full fledged options for controlling and auditing of the work performed on them. ⚠️ Current major version is zero ( v0.x.x ) to accommodate rapid development and fast iteration while getting early feedback from users. Please keep in mind that Werbot is still under active development and therefore full backward compatibility is not guaranteed before reaching v1.0.0. 🏆 Features Werbot works with dedicated, VPS, and cloud servers Manages…
read the full Werbot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Netbird or Werbot more popular?
Netbird has 30,565 GitHub stars and Werbot has 169. Netbird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Netbird and Werbot free?
Neither Netbird nor Werbot declares a licence in this registry, so check each project's own repository before relying on either for a commercial use. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Netbird and Werbot?
Netbird is written in Go and Werbot 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, Netbird or Werbot?
Choose Netbird if you want the larger community (30,565 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Werbot if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.