SHSelfHostIndex

NetBird vs ShellHub

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?
NE NetBird Connect devices into a secure WireGuard-based overlay network VS SH ShellHub Modern SSH server for remotely accessing linux devices via command
FeatureNetBirdShellHub
CategoryRemote Access & VPNRemote Access & VPN
LicenseBSD-3-ClauseApache-2.0
LanguageGoTypeScript
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, binarydocker
GitHub stars★ 28,139★ 2,056
First released20212026
ReplacesTailscale, ZeroTier—

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

Choose ShellHub if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (2.1k GitHub stars)
  • Written in TypeScript
ShellHub details

Frequently asked questions

Is NetBird or ShellHub better?

Neither is universally better. NetBird has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are NetBird and ShellHub free and open-source?

Yes. NetBird is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and ShellHub under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run NetBird and ShellHub with Docker?

NetBird: yes. ShellHub: yes.

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