Firezone 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?
Firezone
Open-source secure remote access platform
VS
Nebula
Scalable overlay networking tool from Slack
| Feature | Firezone | Nebula |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Elixir | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 8,993 | ★ 17,591 |
| First released | 2021 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Cisco AnyConnect, Tailscale | Tailscale |
Why pick each one
Choose Firezone if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 9k GitHub stars
- Written in Elixir
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 Firezone or Nebula better?
Neither is universally better. Nebula has the larger community, while Firezone is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Firezone and Nebula free and open-source?
Yes. Firezone is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Nebula under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Firezone and Nebula with Docker?
Firezone: yes. Nebula: check the project docs for container support.