head to head · open source
Tailscale vs OpenVPN
Tailscale has 36,599 GitHub stars, 3,219 forks, 4,569 open issues and last shipped today. OpenVPN has 14,564 stars, 3,398 forks, 226 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tailscale leads on adoption by 151% (36,599 vs 14,564 stars). Tailscale is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause; OpenVPN is written in C under a custom or non-standard licence. Tailscale has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, OpenVPN 23%. Tailscale was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (vpn), 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 | OpenVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 15K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 3.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Tailscale if
- You weight community size — 37K 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 OpenVPN if
- You want the OpenVPN feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and OpenVPN fits your workflow better
About Tailscale
Tailscale is an open source implementation of a zero configuration VPN built on WireGuard, designed to simplify secure network connectivity across devices. It lives in the network security ecosystem and provides private, encrypted networks without manual firewall or IP management. The project delivers both a daemon ( tailscaled ) and CLI tool ( tailscale ) that enable peer to peer connectivity using WireGuard, augmented with identity based access controls and optional cloud managed features.
read the full Tailscale overview →
About OpenVPN
OpenVPN is open source VPN daemon. It provides secure tunneling for network connections. Project lives in Infrastructure & Operations / Networking & Connectivity ecosystem. Tagline says Zero Trust VPN solutions for secure business networking. GitHub description says OpenVPN is an open source VPN daemon. Repository language is C. GitHub license field says NOASSERTION, while README states GNU General Public License version 2. README states copyright 2002 2026 OpenVPN Inc.
read the full OpenVPN overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tailscale or OpenVPN more popular?
Tailscale has 36,599 GitHub stars and OpenVPN has 14,564. Tailscale has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tailscale and OpenVPN free?
Both are open source. Tailscale is licensed under BSD-3-Clause, and OpenVPN has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Tailscale and OpenVPN?
Tailscale is written in Go and OpenVPN in C. 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 OpenVPN?
Choose Tailscale if you want the larger community (36,599 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose OpenVPN if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.