NetBird 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.
Not the right match-up?
Compare NetBird with
choose an app… frp Headscale Sunshine Tailscale JumpServer Algo VPN WG-Easy localtunnel Neko Teleport GoTTY Moonlight Nebula ZeroTier Chisel Cockpit Termix OpenVPN Mosh rathole noVNC FreeRDP SoftEther VPN EasyTier ttyd Netmaker Sliver bore Apollo RustDesk Server Docker OpenVPN Firezone sshx Warpgate TigerVNC GOST MeshCentral n2n wstunnel Outline Server Webmin Next Terminal innernet Wetty KasmVNC WebSSH Remotely Pritunl Wirehole Nexterm zrok expose websockify Tactical RMM OpenZiti Webtop WireGuard Apache Guacamole Eternal Terminal pgrok Bastillion Sshwifty Shell In A Box strongSwan Xpra Headplane Defguard WebSSH2 Snowflake SSH Client tinc Games on Whales ShellHub Selkies Aspia tunnelmole ztncui Subspace WireGuard Portal wayvnc PyRDP docker-baseimage-gui trzsz boringproxy SSHPiper Upterm Kasm Workspaces Headscale-Admin Wesher x11vnc Neko Rooms CloudTTY OpenConnect Server Apache Guacamole Lite gTunnel X2Go Guacozy Engity's Bifröst Cardea RPort Neutrinet SparkView
Compare RustDesk with
choose an app… frp Headscale Sunshine Tailscale JumpServer Algo VPN WG-Easy localtunnel Neko Teleport GoTTY Moonlight Nebula ZeroTier Chisel Cockpit Termix OpenVPN Mosh rathole noVNC FreeRDP SoftEther VPN EasyTier ttyd Netmaker Sliver bore Apollo RustDesk Server Docker OpenVPN Firezone sshx Warpgate TigerVNC GOST MeshCentral n2n wstunnel Outline Server Webmin Next Terminal innernet Wetty KasmVNC WebSSH Remotely Pritunl Wirehole Nexterm zrok expose websockify Tactical RMM OpenZiti Webtop WireGuard Apache Guacamole Eternal Terminal pgrok Bastillion Sshwifty Shell In A Box strongSwan Xpra Headplane Defguard WebSSH2 Snowflake SSH Client tinc Games on Whales ShellHub Selkies Aspia tunnelmole ztncui Subspace WireGuard Portal wayvnc PyRDP docker-baseimage-gui trzsz boringproxy SSHPiper Upterm Kasm Workspaces Headscale-Admin Wesher x11vnc Neko Rooms CloudTTY OpenConnect Server Apache Guacamole Lite gTunnel X2Go Guacozy Engity's Bifröst Cardea RPort Neutrinet SparkView
Feature NetBird RustDesk Category Remote Access & VPN Remote Access & VPN License BSD-3-Clause AGPL-3.0 Language Go Rust Setup difficulty Medium Easy Min. RAM 256 MB 256 MB Deployment docker, kubernetes, binary docker, binary GitHub stars ★ 28,139 ★ 119,867 First released 2021 2021 Replaces Tailscale, ZeroTier TeamViewer, AnyDesk
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 NetBird details
Frequently asked questions Is NetBird or RustDesk better? RustDesk is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider NetBird if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are NetBird and RustDesk free and open-source? Yes. NetBird is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and RustDesk under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run NetBird and RustDesk with Docker? NetBird: yes. RustDesk: yes.