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NetBird

★ 14k

WireGuard mesh VPN with SSO, access controls, and a management UI you can fully self-host.

NetBird does the job of Tailscale, self-hosted. It is BSD-3-Clause-licensed, so you can do essentially what you like with it, and setting it up is an afternoon, not a weekend. Tailscale bills $6/user for it. 14k stars on GitHub.

Open-source replacement for Tailscale.

Licence
BSD-3-Clause
Self-hosting
Medium
The paid one costs
$6/user
GitHub stars
14k
view the code →official site →

Is it actually a replacement?

We have not written a verdict on Tailscale yet, so this page says what NetBird is rather than judging what you would give up. When that product gets a page, this one will link to it.

How NetBird runs

Where it runs

NetBird runs on your machine or their cloud.

Installing it

Hosted signup plus a client on each device, or the official Docker-based self-hosting quickstart.

Where your data lives

WireGuard keys are generated and kept on peers; device inventory, users, routes, groups, and access policies live in NetBird Cloud or the self-hosted management database, while payload traffic normally travels peer-to-peer and may traverse NetBird relay infrastructure when direct connectivity fails.

What setup takes

The managed free service installs cleanly; self-hosting adds a public domain, TLS, identity/authentication, open ports, relay configuration, a management database, and upgrades.

The catch compared with Home Assistant Cloud

NetBird gives enrolled devices a private route home, but guests, webhooks, and voice assistants cannot use it like a public Nabu Casa endpoint and the user must manage network policy.

NetBird questions

Is NetBird open source?

Yes — it is released under BSD-3-Clause.

Can I self-host NetBird?

Yes — we rate it medium to self-host, and it runs on your machine or their cloud. Hosted signup plus a client on each device, or the official Docker-based self-hosting quickstart.

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