Headscale vs Webmin
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
Webmin
Web-based system administration for Unix-like servers
| Feature | Headscale | Webmin |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Go | HTML |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 42,612 | ★ 5,996 |
| First released | 2020 | 1997 |
| Replaces | Tailscale | cPanel |
Why pick each one
Choose Webmin if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 6k GitHub stars
- Written in HTML
Frequently asked questions
Is Headscale or Webmin better?
Neither is universally better. Headscale has the larger community, while Webmin is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Headscale and Webmin free and open-source?
Yes. Headscale is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Webmin under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Headscale and Webmin with Docker?
Headscale: yes. Webmin: check the project docs for container support.