Open source alternatives to Tailscale

2 projects on starwire do the same job. Ranked by how much of what Tailscale does each one covers, read from its README and website. Ties go to the most active.

What Tailscale does

Private network between devicescore
WireGuard mesh VPNcore
Access control rules
Exit nodes
Share services with others
MagicDNS
SSO login

Each dot in the table is one job, in this order. Square dots are core jobs and count double. Full means yes, half means partly. "See the evidence" under a project shows the line behind each one. Coverage is what a project documents, not how well it works or how hard it is to move to. How we score this

Project	Covers	Stars	Commits, 12 weeks	Last release	Closed vs opened	Setup	License
netbirdMesh VPN on WireGuard with identity-based zero trust access control	Replaces it89%	31k+208	366	yesterday	100%	Hosted version	Custom license
Covers all 2 core jobs. Partly: Share services with others; MagicDNS.See the evidence Private network between devicescoreYesconfiguration-free peer-to-peer private network WireGuard mesh VPNcoreYesNetBird creates a WireGuard-based overlay network Access control rulesYesAccess control: groups & rules Exit nodesYesExit nodes Share services with othersPartlyReverse proxy with auto-TLS MagicDNSPartlyPrivate DNS SSO loginYesSSO & MFA support
pangolinSelf-hosted reverse proxy and WireGuard tunnel with SSO for exposing private apps	Covers one part78%	24k+321	856	10 days ago	90%	Hosted, free plan	Custom license
Covers 1 of 2 core jobs. Partly: WireGuard mesh VPN. Not shown: Exit nodes.See the evidence Private network between devicescoreYesPeer-to-peer with intelligent NAT traversal WireGuard mesh VPNcorePartlyWireGuard-based Access control rulesYesrole-based access control, and full audit logging Exit nodesNot shownNeither the README nor the website mentions it. Share services with othersYesjust send someone a link and have them access it MagicDNSYesFriendly DNS aliases for network addresses SSO loginYesSingle sign-on across all resources

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