Nebula vs Netmaker
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?
Nebula
Scalable overlay networking tool from Slack
VS
Netmaker
WireGuard-based virtual networks with a management server
| Feature | Nebula | Netmaker |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 17,591 | ★ 11,740 |
| First released | 2019 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Tailscale | Tailscale, ZeroTier |
Why pick each one
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
Choose Netmaker if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 11.7k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Nebula or Netmaker better?
Neither is universally better. Nebula has the larger community, while Netmaker is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Nebula and Netmaker free and open-source?
Yes. Nebula is licensed under MIT and Netmaker under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Nebula and Netmaker with Docker?
Nebula: check the project docs for container support. Netmaker: yes.