innernet vs RustDesk

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureinnernetRustDesk
CategoryRemote Access & VPNRemote Access & VPN
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguageRustRust
Setup difficultyHardEasy
Min. RAM64 MB256 MB
Deploymentbinary, bare-metaldocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 5,520★ 119,867
First released20212021
ReplacesTailscaleTeamViewer, AnyDesk

Why pick each one

Choose innernet if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Mature project with 5.5k GitHub stars
  • Written in Rust
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
innernet details

Choose RustDesk if…

  • Easy self-hosted server
  • Works everywhere
RustDesk details

Frequently asked questions

Is innernet or RustDesk better?

RustDesk is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider innernet if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are innernet and RustDesk free and open-source?

Yes. innernet is licensed under MIT and RustDesk under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run innernet and RustDesk with Docker?

innernet: check the project docs for container support. RustDesk: yes.

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