Nebula vs OpenVPN
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
OpenVPN
Robust and flexible open-source VPN solution
| Feature | Nebula | OpenVPN |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Go | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | bare-metal, docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 17,591 | ★ 14,345 |
| First released | 2019 | 2001 |
| Replaces | Tailscale | Cisco AnyConnect |
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 OpenVPN if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 14.3k GitHub stars
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is Nebula or OpenVPN better?
Neither is universally better. Nebula has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Nebula and OpenVPN free and open-source?
Yes. Nebula is licensed under MIT and OpenVPN under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Nebula and OpenVPN with Docker?
Nebula: check the project docs for container support. OpenVPN: yes.