I'm unsure if it has been mentioned, but a similar tool which is open source (you can run the backend unlike tailscale), netbird
this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2025
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Headscale is the tailscale backend server
Well not "the" backend server but "a" different backend server. As far as I know Headscale is a separate implementation from what Tailscale run themselves.
We've implemented netbird at my company, we're pretty happy with it overall.
The main drawback is that it has no way of handling multiple different accounts on the same machine, and they don't seem to have any plans for ever really solving that. As long as you can live with that, it's a good solution.
Support is a mixed bag. Mostly just a slack server, kind of lacking in what I'd call enterprise level support. But development seems to be moving at a rapid pace, and they're definitely in that "Small but eager" stage where everything happens quickly. I've reported bugs and had them fixed the same day.
Everything is open source. Backend, clients, the whole bag. So if they ever try to enshittify, you can just take your ball and leave.
Also, the security tools are really cool. Instead of writing out firewall rules by hand like Tailscale, they have a really nice, really simple GUI for setting up all your ACLs. I found it very intuitive.
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Is there an issue with Netbird's servers at the moment? In my testing devices are connected and reach eachother, but the web admin is missing a lot of functionality compared to what's in the docs. The peer devices section is there, but everything else, user settings, rules etc, isn't showing/says I don't have admin permission (of my own account.. Lol?)
Honestly, no idea, worth checking their GitHub etc or their status pages if they have any
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Sigh...
And even worse:
Everything in Tailscale is Open Source, except the GUI clients for proprietary OS (Windows and macOS/iOS), and the control server.
everything is open source except half of all things.
Lol
To be fair, anything the GUI clients do can be done with the CLI which is still open source and on all desktop platforms and headscale is literally their open source control server.
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Nerds stop recommending corporate crap: challenge: impossible
I think I'll just keep using tailscale until they start enshittifying, and then set up a Headscale instance on a VPS - no need to take this step ahead of time, right?
I mean, all the people saying they can avoid any issues by doing the above - what's to stop Tailscale dropping support for Headscale in future if they're serious about enshitification? Their Linux & Android clients are open source, but not IOS or Windows so they could easily block access for them.
My point being - I'll worry when there is something substantial to worry about, til then they can know I'm using like 3 devices and a github account to authenticate. MagicDNS and the reliability of the clients is just too good for me to switch over mild funding concerns.
Yeah, as I said, it's a friendly reminder. I'm personally probably doing it this year. It's entirely possible that enshittification could come even years from now. It all depends on how their enterprise adoption goes I think. The more money they make there, the longer the individual users are gonna be left unsqueezed.
I just replaced my entire setup with base wireguard as a challenge, easier than I expected it to be, and not hard to mimic tailscale.
If you just have to talk from many devices to the one server sure, but Tailscale sure makes it easy for many to many. Also if a direct connection is impossible (e.g. firewall of china, CGNAT etc) tailscale puts a relay server in the middle for you.
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become profitable when needed
By what, laying off all QA and support staff and half your developers the moment a single quarterly earnings report isn't spotlessly gilded?
Crap, I really need to switch of Tailscale but currently it is an easy way for me to access my stuff outside of home as a temporary solution while I am on a 5G modem.
I can recommend to take a look at netbird.io
I can't. I tried it first and installed it on my phone from f-droid. After opening it up, it connected to an already existing network with other people's old machines from years ago on it. I was horrified.
So then I tried to delete my whole account and couldn't due to an error. I sent them an email about it and they took like two weeks to respond.
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Friendly reminder that Tailscale is VC-funded and driving towards IPO
You know what's to come.
The answer to the question is immediately. Or switch to OpenZiti or Pangolin even.
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And here I am, still using OpenVPN in 2025 lol
Used to run OpenVPN. Tried Wireguard and the performance was much better, although lacking some of the features some might need/want fit credential-based logins etc
I can highly recommend Netbird selfhosted, it has SSO support, logins, complex network topologies, it uses wireguard under the hood and it's open source.
That sounds kinda cool. I'll have to check it out. It's kinda hard sometimes to push FOSS stuff in a largercorporate environment but this looks like something I could recommend/build for small-mid private SOHO clients.
This is what I used in a small/mid sized company to replace a legacy VPN, generally we had only very few issues but probably the employee personal computer is to blame, right now is very stable.
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I'm not that worried as there are alternatives like Netbird. The underlying tech really isn't hard to replicate since Wireguard is pretty standard.
I think it would be cool if Tailscale made it into the enterprise arena.
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Am I totally off-base in thinking that MagicDNS and pluggable DNS nameserver overrides are a huge feature of tailscale?
I love that I can refer to my tailnet devices just via their machine name. I use it everywhere. And also that I can just slot in my NextDNS ID so that any device running tailscale now automatically uses that, and I don’t have to mess with my shared router settings or per device settings. Is all that actually really easy to set up outside of tailscale? Cuz if it is and I just somehow missed that when doing all my research, I’ll happily give plain wireguard or other mesh orchestrators like NetBird a go.
And I already know that mDNS is not the answer. That protocol is simply not reliable enough.
I use wireguard and have public DNS refer to private IPs.
For example if my server is accessible at 10.0.0.1 via wireguard then I point *.myserver.mydomain.com to that IP.
Sorry if I've misunderstood your question.
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I think a lot of companies view their free plan as recruiting/advertising
if you use TailScale personally and have a great experience then you'll bring in business by advocating for it at work.
Of course it could go either way, and I don't rely on TailScale (it's my "backup" VPN to my home network)... we'll see, I guess.
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I never really understood the point of using Tailscale over plain ol' WireGuard. I mean I guess if youve got a dozen+ nodes but I feel like most laymens topologies won't be complex beyond a regular old wireguard config
Wireguard doesn't do NAT/Firewall traversal nor does it have SSO
Tailscale manages the underlying Wireguard for you. I would be great if Wireguard had native NAT traversal but that isn't the case.
NAT punching and proxying when a p2p connection between any 2 nodes cannot be achieved. It’s a world of difference with mobile devices when they always see each other, all the time. However, headscale does all that.
Same thing here, either tailscale selfhosted or Netbird selfhosted I'd the way to go for all the nice features, having the free tier or tailscale for personal data never sounded right to me.
Good thing I deleted it from my homeserver a month ago.
So glad my router supports WireGuard/OVPN server hosting, doing it this way also relieves resources off your homelab and for whatever reason your homelab shuts off or loses network access you can at least rely on your router to re-establish the VPN server without further intervention.
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