Cockpit vs Nebula
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?
Cockpit
Web-based graphical interface for Linux servers
VS
Nebula
Scalable overlay networking tool from Slack
| Feature | Cockpit | Nebula |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | LGPL-2.1 | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, binary | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,842 | ★ 17,591 |
| First released | 2014 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Webmin | Tailscale |
Why pick each one
Choose Cockpit if…
- Released under the LGPL-2.1 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 14.8k GitHub stars
- Written in JavaScript
Choose Nebula if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Mature project with 17.6k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Cockpit or Nebula better?
Neither is universally better. Nebula has the larger community, while Cockpit is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Cockpit and Nebula free and open-source?
Yes. Cockpit is licensed under LGPL-2.1 and Nebula under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cockpit and Nebula with Docker?
Cockpit: check the project docs for container support. Nebula: check the project docs for container support.