SHSelfHostIndex

Headplane vs Tailscale

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?
HE Headplane Advanced web UI and control panel for Headscale VS TA Tailscale Zero-config mesh VPN built on WireGuard
FeatureHeadplaneTailscale
CategoryRemote Access & VPNRemote Access & VPN
LicenseMPL-2.0BSD-3-Clause
LanguageTypeScriptGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB64 MB
Deploymentdockerbinary, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 2,831★ 34,934
First released20242019
ReplacesTailscale Admin ConsoleZeroTier

Why pick each one

Choose Headplane if…

  • Released under the MPL-2.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (2.8k GitHub stars)
Headplane details

Choose Tailscale if…

  • Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Mature project with 34.9k GitHub stars
  • Written in Go
Tailscale details

Frequently asked questions

Is Headplane or Tailscale better?

Neither is universally better. Tailscale has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Headplane and Tailscale free and open-source?

Yes. Headplane is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Tailscale under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Headplane and Tailscale with Docker?

Headplane: yes. Tailscale: check the project docs for container support.

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