Headscale vs tunnelmole
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?
Headscale
Open-source self-hosted Tailscale control server
VS
tunnelmole
Open-source tunnel to expose local servers to the internet
| Feature | Headscale | tunnelmole |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary, docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 42,612 | ★ 1,885 |
| First released | 2020 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Tailscale | ngrok, localtunnel |
Why pick each one
Choose tunnelmole if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.9k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Headscale or tunnelmole better?
Neither is universally better. Headscale has the larger community, while tunnelmole is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Headscale and tunnelmole free and open-source?
Yes. Headscale is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and tunnelmole under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Headscale and tunnelmole with Docker?
Headscale: yes. tunnelmole: yes.