Self-hosted alternatives to Tailscale
Want mesh VPN / zero-trust networking without handing your data to Tailscale? These 3 self-hosted apps run on your own server. Cheapest estimated hosting starts at about $3.5/month.
About Tailscale: Mesh VPN built on WireGuard for connecting devices, servers and services.
| App | Health | Stars | License | Docker | RAM (est.) | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pangolin direct | Active | 23.5k | AGPL-3.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Firezone | Active | 9.2k | Apache-2.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| OpenZiti | Active | 4.5k | Apache-2.0 | – | 512 MB | $3.5/mo |
The options in detail
1. Pangolin
Identity-aware tunneled reverse proxy with dashboard UI, access control, and WireGuard-based tunnels (alternative to Cloudflare Tunnel, Tailscale).
Active Last commit 2026-11-09. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release 1.26.0 (2026-11-04). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
2. Firezone
Secure remote access gateway that supports the WireGuard protocol. It offers a Web GUI, 1-line install script, multi-factor auth (MFA), and SSO.
Active Last commit 2026-11-10. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release headless-client-1.5.16 (2026-11-10). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
3. OpenZiti
Fully-featured, zero trust, full mesh overlay network. Includes a 2FA support out of the box, clients for all major desktop/mobile OS'es.
Active Last commit 2026-11-09. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release v1.6.22 (2026-10-19). Needs roughly 512 MB RAM. How to run it →
Why self-host instead of Tailscale?
- Own your data — it lives on a server you control, with backups you decide on.
- Predictable cost — a small VPS often replaces per-seat pricing for a whole team or family.
- No lock-in — open-source licenses let you keep running the software even if a vendor disappears.
The trade-off: you are responsible for updates, backups and security. Pick an app marked Active (a commit in the last 90 days) and with Docker support for the easiest ride.
Browse related categories
Other alternatives guides
Tailscale is a trademark of its owner; this site is not affiliated with it. Listings come from the community-maintained awesome-selfhosted list.