NetBird vs tunnelmole
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?
NetBird
Connect devices into a secure WireGuard-based overlay network
VS
tunnelmole
Open-source tunnel to expose local servers to the internet
| Feature | NetBird | tunnelmole |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | binary, docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 28,139 | ★ 1,885 |
| First released | 2021 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Tailscale, ZeroTier | ngrok, localtunnel |
Why pick each one
Choose NetBird if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 28.1k GitHub stars
Choose tunnelmole if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.9k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is NetBird or tunnelmole better?
Neither is universally better. NetBird has the larger community, while tunnelmole is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are NetBird and tunnelmole free and open-source?
Yes. NetBird is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and tunnelmole under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run NetBird and tunnelmole with Docker?
NetBird: yes. tunnelmole: yes.