Algo VPN vs Headscale
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare Algo VPN with
choose an app… RustDesk frp Sunshine Tailscale JumpServer NetBird WG-Easy localtunnel Neko Teleport GoTTY Moonlight Nebula ZeroTier Chisel Cockpit Termix OpenVPN Mosh rathole noVNC FreeRDP SoftEther VPN EasyTier ttyd Netmaker Sliver bore Apollo RustDesk Server Docker OpenVPN Firezone sshx Warpgate TigerVNC GOST MeshCentral n2n wstunnel Outline Server Webmin Next Terminal innernet Wetty KasmVNC WebSSH Remotely Pritunl Wirehole Nexterm zrok expose websockify Tactical RMM OpenZiti Webtop WireGuard Apache Guacamole Eternal Terminal pgrok Bastillion Sshwifty Shell In A Box strongSwan Xpra Headplane Defguard WebSSH2 Snowflake SSH Client tinc Games on Whales ShellHub Selkies Aspia tunnelmole ztncui Subspace WireGuard Portal wayvnc PyRDP docker-baseimage-gui trzsz boringproxy SSHPiper Upterm Kasm Workspaces Headscale-Admin Wesher x11vnc Neko Rooms CloudTTY OpenConnect Server Apache Guacamole Lite gTunnel X2Go Guacozy Engity's Bifröst Cardea RPort Neutrinet SparkView
Compare Headscale with
choose an app… RustDesk frp Sunshine Tailscale JumpServer NetBird WG-Easy localtunnel Neko Teleport GoTTY Moonlight Nebula ZeroTier Chisel Cockpit Termix OpenVPN Mosh rathole noVNC FreeRDP SoftEther VPN EasyTier ttyd Netmaker Sliver bore Apollo RustDesk Server Docker OpenVPN Firezone sshx Warpgate TigerVNC GOST MeshCentral n2n wstunnel Outline Server Webmin Next Terminal innernet Wetty KasmVNC WebSSH Remotely Pritunl Wirehole Nexterm zrok expose websockify Tactical RMM OpenZiti Webtop WireGuard Apache Guacamole Eternal Terminal pgrok Bastillion Sshwifty Shell In A Box strongSwan Xpra Headplane Defguard WebSSH2 Snowflake SSH Client tinc Games on Whales ShellHub Selkies Aspia tunnelmole ztncui Subspace WireGuard Portal wayvnc PyRDP docker-baseimage-gui trzsz boringproxy SSHPiper Upterm Kasm Workspaces Headscale-Admin Wesher x11vnc Neko Rooms CloudTTY OpenConnect Server Apache Guacamole Lite gTunnel X2Go Guacozy Engity's Bifröst Cardea RPort Neutrinet SparkView
Feature Algo VPN Headscale Category Remote Access & VPN Remote Access & VPN License AGPL-3.0 BSD-3-Clause Language Python Go Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 128 MB Deployment bare-metal, source docker, binary GitHub stars ★ 30,350 ★ 42,612 First released 2016 2020 Replaces NordVPN Tailscale
Why pick each one
Choose Algo VPN if… Released under the AGPL-3.0 license Easy to set up — beginner-friendly Mature project with 30.4k GitHub stars Written in Python Algo VPN details
Frequently asked questions Is Algo VPN or Headscale better? Neither is universally better. Headscale has the larger community, while Algo VPN is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Algo VPN and Headscale free and open-source? Yes. Algo VPN is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Headscale under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Algo VPN and Headscale with Docker? Algo VPN: check the project docs for container support. Headscale: yes.