head to head · open source
Tailscale vs Werbot
Tailscale has 36,587 GitHub stars, 3,218 forks, 4,569 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Werbot has 170 stars, 10 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Tailscale leads on adoption by 21,422% (36,587 vs 170 stars). Tailscale is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause; Werbot is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. Tailscale has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Werbot 6%. Tailscale was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | Werbot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 170 |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 10 |
| 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 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 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 Werbot
Werbot is a self hosted server access management platform written in Go and packaged as Docker containers that run as microservices. It gives a team a single place from which to grant, control and audit access to servers, databases, web applications, desktops, containers and clouds, using single sign on rather than shared passwords or scattered private keys. The project lives in the Go and container ecosystem, with supporting components for a web dashboard, enterprise functions, an install script, Windows and Unix agents, and a Pluggable Authentication Module for native two factor authentication on nix platforms.…
read the full Werbot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tailscale or Werbot more popular?
Tailscale has 36,587 GitHub stars and Werbot has 170. Tailscale has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tailscale and Werbot free?
Both are open source. Tailscale is licensed under BSD-3-Clause, and Werbot has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Tailscale and Werbot?
Tailscale 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, Tailscale or Werbot?
Choose Tailscale if you want the larger community (36,587 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose Werbot if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.