head to head · open source
Tailscale vs WireGuard
Tailscale has 36,587 GitHub stars, 3,218 forks, 4,569 open issues and last shipped yesterday. WireGuard has 717 stars, 312 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. Tailscale leads on adoption by 5,003% (36,587 vs 717 stars). Tailscale is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause; WireGuard is written in C under GPL-2.0. Tailscale has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, WireGuard 44%. 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 | WireGuard | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 717 |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-05-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 312 |
| 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 WireGuard if
- You want the WireGuard feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and WireGuard 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 WireGuard
WireGuard's userspace tooling, packaged as wireguard tools, is the command line layer that configures WireGuard VPN tunnels, aimed at system administrators, distribution packagers and anyone who needs to bring a WireGuard interface up and down from a shell or an init system.
read the full WireGuard overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tailscale or WireGuard more popular?
Tailscale has 36,587 GitHub stars and WireGuard has 717. Tailscale has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tailscale and WireGuard free?
Both are open source. Tailscale is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and WireGuard under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Tailscale and WireGuard?
Tailscale is written in Go and WireGuard 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 WireGuard?
Choose Tailscale if you want the larger community (36,587 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose WireGuard if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.