Nebula vs noVNC
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
noVNC
VNC client that runs entirely in the browser
| Feature | Nebula | noVNC |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | MPL-2.0 |
| Language | Go | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | bare-metal, docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 17,591 | ★ 13,911 |
| First released | 2019 | 2010 |
| Replaces | Tailscale | RealVNC |
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 noVNC if…
- Released under the MPL-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 13.9k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Nebula or noVNC better?
Neither is universally better. Nebula has the larger community, while noVNC is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Nebula and noVNC free and open-source?
Yes. Nebula is licensed under MIT and noVNC under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Nebula and noVNC with Docker?
Nebula: check the project docs for container support. noVNC: yes.